Becoming Warrior
by YoungestCullen8
Summary: Sequel to Music and Lyrics: Shin Woo's cousin has come into the company as a manager. Tae Kyung has made her the new manager of a boy group who is about to debut. She has to make them come in first place or face a punishment from Tae Kyung. She forms deep bonds with all of them that will be tested as the time comes for them to perform. R&R
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This is the new story with B.A.P. I changed directions and decided to put them with an actual music TV show. Hopefully you like it as much as you liked the other one.

I took the name of B.A.P's story group from one of their songs. I try to do something like that if I use boy groups as boy groups in a story. I don't know how it will work out though. My next story is going to be in another drama but I'm not sure which one. I've been watching so many lately it's hard to decide, although I do know which group I'm going to use next.

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"I'm late!"

That happened a lot when you worked all night and could barely get any sleep. Then you were forced to sleep whenever you could. Then it was hit or miss whether or not you heard the blasted alarm clock.

Unfortunately for Han Solbi she didn't get any sleep or hear her alarm when she did get to sleep. She did however hear her phone when it rang six times over. Her cousin had called her nonstop until she had finally picked up. Not prone to anger, he had only laughed until she had registered what today was supposed to mean. Only then had she gotten up and started the frantic run for her life.

Not that it had mattered. She was already half an hour late. Her life was going to end shortly so why should she run? Oh, probably for the simple reason that she may have a chance of surviving if she could get to her cousin. He would make sure she didn't get too slaughtered by her friend's hot temper.

She took the bus to the company and prayed that none of it came as a blow back to her cousin. The only reason she had gotten this job was because of him. Even though she was legally blind in one eye since birth, he had seen the best qualities in her. It had taken a lot of pull for him to get the job for her, and if she screwed it up it would fall back on him. She didn't want that to happen.

She listened for her stop then stood with everyone else. She was the first one off the bus and was running down the sidewalk before it had even boarded its new passengers. She stopped by the coffee shop and bought eight coffees. If she was going to be late she was going to do it right. Her brother's friend would be lenient if she brought a gift (maybe). Two cup carriers in hand, she headed to the company.

A.N. Entertainment was one of the top five music/entertainment companies in South Korea. It was only rivaled by the YG Entertainment, SM Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment. It always swept the fourth place and was always followed by Big Hit Entertainment. Starship Entertainment and four others rounded out the top ten.

If an artist didn't get into the top three companies, they always tried out for A.N. Jell, but it was hard to top the companies Number 1 selling band A.N. Jell. Not that they didn't try, but people loved A.N. Jell and its band members. Now they were starting to love the band members' girlfriends as well because the women were started to come into their own.

Hwang Tae Kyung and Go Mi Nyo had started a charity for children who were orphans or lived under a single parent home. They helped with groceries and clothing and shoes and any interest the children had. They paid for schooling if they needed to do so. The parents and the nation had been so grateful to them for all of that.

Jeremy had improved the nation's relationship with the European countries. Since his girlfriend was the daughter of the English ambassador, he got to do plenty. He even got up-and-coming artists permission to play at any and all state functions. Last they had heard one of Jeremy's projects had played for the Queen of England in England.

Go Mi Nam and his crazy girlfriend Yoo Hee Yi were still the same. Yoo Hee Yi was still revered as the nation's little sister and Mi Nam had broken out into the modeling scene as well. They were still full of themselves but they had become kinder to everyone around them. It was amazing for them.

But it was Kang Shin Woo who had had the most effect on the nation. His girlfriend Jaye Bondurant had brought the entire New York Philharmonic for a charity event. All the proceeds went to the music programs in the second class schools. That night had been the night that her father had retired from the Philharmonic. Everyone had been upset at his sudden departure but he had explained that his twenty-five year run had come at a cost. He was suffering from stage two lung cancer and would remain in Korea for treatment. Jaye had gone up in the rankings of best girlfriend ever.

They all had their own back stories but they had bonded together over music. The twins had produced a collaborative CD of just them, and Tae Kyung had collaborated with Chanyeol from SM Entertainment's EXO on an acoustic set that had sold more than fifteen million pieces on release.

And Solbi had walked into all of that with nothing more than a PR degree and hours working for the assistant secretary to the South Korean president.

The guard only laughed at her as she slid around the corner of the building. She bumped into a group of six guys on their way in. Muttering an apology, she ran through the open doors and headed upstairs. It was nearing nine o'clock and she was certain she was going to be yelled at even with coffee.

She threw the door open and was pierced with an angry stare from Tae Kyung. If this had been ten years ago, she would have cringed at him since his reputation had been horrible. But since he'd been dating Mi Nyo he had settled down. He was still hard on the company employees but that had eased up a bit.

"Han Solbi!" he seethed under his breath.

"Oppa," she whined a little, using a title she knew he hated. She then held up the coffee containers as she bit her lip. "I come in peace."

Tae Kyung's tongue peeked out from the corner of his mouth as he stared down at her. She was the shortest out of all of the women that surrounded the band. All of them could easily dwarf her, especially Jaye who was taller than Shin Woo by two inches, putting her over six feet.

"You're supposed to be on time no matter what. Bringing coffee won't make me any happier with you right now. I should fire you," he said.

Solbi laughed as she passed out the rest of the coffee. Tae Kyung may be angry but he was at least honest and coffee always worked wonders with him. Sometimes she swore she could just hook him up to an IV and he would be happy.

She sat down and looked over the itinerary she had been given. "So they've passed the auditions to become the new hip-hop group Warrior hmm?" she asked. "I thought that wasn't going to fruition for a few months."

"President Ahn bumped up the debut date since CANDY had a meltdown two weeks ago and haven't been able to practice. So we're changing you people. You will be in charge of Warrior and I will light a fire under the butts of the CANDY girls. I hate wasting talent."

"You know I didn't get the music gene. Shin Woo did."

"No, but you did get the intelligence and tact of your family. You know how to use the press to your advantage. That's what I want you to do. I want you to make these men sex symbols."

Solbi flipped through the profiles and read up on each of the six men. Well, five men. One was barely legal in Korean age. "That won't be the hard part. I can't market music unless I know what they're capable of."

Shin Woo tapped her knee. "Meet them in person then decide. They should have gotten here the same time you were bolting through the doors. I'm surprised you didn't know them over."

She made a face at him as the door opened. She hated meeting new acts because she usually got close to them. When that happened, they formed an intense bond that was only shattered if they didn't pan out like the company wanted. She hoped this worked out because in the end it was also their hearts that would be crushed.

On the other side of the door the guys of the new group Warrior waited. They were so nervous for two reasons. Their debut date had been pushed up by two months and they were getting a new manager. The first one had quit because it had been too hard to handle six healthy men. They weren't going around the town sleeping around but they didn't exactly follow company rules all the time.

They glanced nervously at each other as they waited longer than they thought they would. They had been pulled out of bed at eight after rolling in around five. Coffee hadn't even woken them up, but by this point they'd already had four cups apiece. Right then they were functioning on one.

Finally the door opened and they were escorted in the conference room. They were so nervous coming into the presence of one of the greatest groups in A.N. history. Respectfully they bowed and took a seat on the empty side of the table.

Tae Kyung looked at them with what could be called his pleasant face. Usually he scowled at everyone so it didn't make a difference really. He looked at the six men sitting at the table and wondered how this was going to work. Solbi was a bit of maniac but she was smart and knew exactly what to use to get the best results.

"Warrior, this is your new manager Han Solbi. Solbi, this is Warrior. It's up to you to get to know the on a personal level. I would introduce them to you but," he shrugged, "I don't want to."

Their attentions were drawn to the woman who snorted. "You, sir, are an asshole of the nth degree."

"Don't cuss in front of the kids."

"Two of them are the same age as Jeremy and me. Unfortunately for them, I'm the oldest one out of this whole group."

"Only by two weeks," Jeremy reminded, "and I don't even call you Noona. And you can't forget the twins."

Laughter fluttered around the room as the bickering continued. It was the same old argument. Solbi and Jeremy were born in the same year, but Solbi's birthday was on Valentine's Day while Jeremy's was March 2. In the end it had turned out that Solbi, the Go twins, and Jeremy made the maknae line of their group. If someone wanted to get technical, this was the lineup: Hwang Tae Kyung, Kang Shin Woo, Han Solbi, Go Mi Nam, Go Mi Nyo, and Jeremy. In the end Jeremy was always the youngest and sometimes he used it to his advantage.

Shin Woo dropped his hand from his face as he angled a question at his best friend and cousin. "Do you two ever listen to yourself talk or do you just ignore it and yap?"

Solbi smiled sweetly at her cousin before she popped him in the back of the head with her folder. Shin Woo was her mother's brother's son. They had grown up in Busan together and had decided to work together after Solbi realized she missed her cousin who was like a brother. It hadn't taken much for her to get the job.

Tae Kyung threw a pen across the table at her. "Hey, Solbi. Take your charges and get out of here. You have two weeks until they're supposed to be on TV. If you don't situate everything for them now, you have to do it later."

"Do you even know who I am?" she asked as she got up and rounded the table.

"Yes, you're late and we always wonder when you're going to get your job done."

"I'll make a bet with you. They'll take the top spot in two weeks or you can change my hairstyle as you've always wanted."

Tae Kyung smiled devilishly. "You have a deal there, my young dongsaeng. Make sure they take the top spot, or your beautiful black hair will be a rainbow."

She turned to the guys as they tried to hide their amusement. "Let's go."

When the seven of them had filed out, Shin Woo looked at his friend. "Is that a good idea? She loves the color of her hair."

The leader nodded. "She's got a fire lit under her now. She won't back down."

"Have you never met her? She beat you last time you made this bet."

Tae Kyung smiled. "I know. It shows her talent. I can't wait to see what she comes up with this time."

Jeremy laughed. "Hyung, you're a glutton for punishment."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: This has taken a couple of days because I have been busy. It's getting crazy around here. School is getting ready to let out next week for thanksgiving. Then we only have three weeks after that before Christmas break. This year has flown by and I can't believe how many stories I have written. Thanks for bearing with me when I hit a slump and couldn't get all of my thoughts out in a timely fashion.

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Yong Guk led his band mates down the hallway as they followed the woman. She was short, shorter than Jongup. She barely came up to Zelo's chest and was shoulder height on Jongup. She was a midget but obviously had a very fiery personality.

From behind she was obviously petite, and it matched her in the front. She was very trim but the shirt and skirt she was wearing proved she worked out. She didn't bother wearing heels because she was comfortable with her height.

She led them to a closed practice room and flipped on the light. It was bigger than the one they normally practiced in. They blanched when they saw the name Hwang Tae Kyung emblazoned in gold along the wall.

She didn't seem to care. Pulling up a chair she motioned for them to sit down, which they did. She took a moment to look them over, giving them enough time to look at her. She was beautiful.

"I'm Han Solbi, your new manager. I replaced Manager Kim who had an unexpected procedure. Personally I think I'm a lot cuter." They chuckled at that. "I know I'm not what you expected but I will do my damnedest to get you to the top."

The one she knew to be Zelo raised his hand and waited until she looked at him. "This is a bit personal but why is your eye that color?" His friend pinged him in the side.

"It's okay. I was born blind in one eye. If I ever turn to you with my left side, it's because I can't see out of my right."

Being completely honest with them had a way of making them feel at ease. She wasn't going to lie or cheat them. She was truly there for their benefit.

"I'm Zelo, the maknae and rapper. Jongup hyung and I dance as well," the tallest one said.

The one beside him nodded. "I'm Jongup, the main dancer and a focal."

They continued down the line. "I'm Young Jae, lead vocal and a focus point."

"I'm Daehyun, lead vocal."

"Himchan. I'm a vocal, rapper when I want to be and visual." They laughed at the rapper bit.

"I'm the leader and lead rapper Yong Guk. If you don't mind my asking, how did you get this job?"

"I grew up dancing, but I knew it wouldn't get me anywhere. When my cousin moved here to pursue his dreams, I knew I wanted to work in the entertainment industry in some way. So I majored in PR and worked for the president for a while before coming here. Tae Kyung Oppa swore that if I ever left the company he's beat me with a guitar," she explained.

"Who's your cousin?" Daehyun asked. He had a slightly terrified look on his face.

"Kang Shin Woo is my cousin. He got me the job here a year ago. Since then I've been running. You're my first group to handle on my own and I'll be damned if I let this go. So work hard for me and I'll work hard for you."

They looked between each other. Their last manager had promised the same thing but the second he had gotten sick he had forgotten them. He hadn't shown up to work for days and when he did he refused to comment on why. It hadn't been until he had to have an operation that they had found out he had been really sick. By that point they had already been bumped up for debut by eight months. It had left them wary that they would do well at all.

Solbi knew the looks of wariness well. She had felt the same thing when she had applied for her first position and one of the interviewers had asked how she would feel if they asked her to wear tight, skimpy clothing. She had been ready to tell them what they could do with their skimpy clothes right then and there, but she'd held hey infuse. A week later she had been hired with modest clothing.

She flipped her tablet open and pulled up her photoshop. She pulled the image they had created in their planning meeting and put it on top of a black background. She handed the tablet and stylus to Zelo who was right in front of her.

"Take turns signing your name. If you can sign it in English do it, but if not it's okay." She waited patiently as it made its way down the line. Her hand brushed Yong Guk's as he handed it back. She drew on the pad then hit save. "These will be on your promotional posters. Your task for the next few days is to take selcas and choose your top three. We'll meet again and decide which one is your best and go from there."

"Why should we do that?" Daehyun asked.

"Because I don't like photo shoots. They're too rigid and they don't show your personalities. Selcas do. They can give an insight to who you are away from the public eye."

She looked at her watch. "You have a break for today. I have a couple of meetings to set your schedule. I'll see you tomorrow morning for dance practice."

They watched her leave the room. The general agreement as they looked around was that she was a good person. She knew what she was doing even if they didn't understand the selca thing. The fire in her eyes told them she was going to do her best to get them to the top.

"Should we do what she asks?" Himchan asked.

"I don't know if it will work but it's worth a shot. Photo shoots take too long when we could be practicing," Daehyun answered.

"She's giving us a break to get something done in a way we want it. I don't know if this is a good thing or not," Jongup added.

Yong Guk looked at his friends and realized they were still a little nervous. He was too. He got up and left the room. He needed to find Solbi and ask her a few more questions.

He went back the way them came from A.N. Jell's private meeting room to see if he could find her. He wanted to ask a few questions to make sure they were getting a good deal with this or if they should just walk away now.

He didn't want to make the deal then have it backfire in his face. Zelo and Daehyun couldn't afford it. They both came from the other end of the country and had been living here simply because their parents had forfeited a lot to make sure they could do what they dreamed. Yong Guk had taken on other jobs after he had been paired with them to make sure they had some sort of spending money. He had even covered their expenses when they had to help pay for their dorm. And it wasn't because he had come from a wealthy family. He had simply wanted to look after his dongseangs.

Kang Shin Woo met him at the door just as he reached for it. The guitarist for A.N. Jell smiled at him and stepped back. He wasn't going to let him in the room until he knew what was going on.

"Tae Kyung's in there working on a new song. I don't think you want to go in there," he said.

Yong Guk took a moment to look him over. He could see the resemblance between Solbi and Shin Woo. They had the same eyes and facial features, but Solbi was much better looking. Both were really kind and could be easily mistaken as airheads.

"Is there something I can do for you?" he asked.

"I'm looking for Han Solbi," Yong Guk finally said.

"She's not in here. She should be in one of her meetings with your art team. She should be back shortly." He looked over his shoulder as his face brightened. "Well, there she is. Sol, come here a minute."

Something in Yong Guk didn't like the way he said Sol. Yes, they had grown up together, but he didn't like the affection behind the tone. He didn't know why. He had a sister he had an affectionate nickname for. It was the same concept, except this time it rubbed him the wrong way.

Yong Guk turned around to see her walking towards them confidently. It had only been thirty minutes and yet she had come back looking somewhat different. He couldn't pinpoint why. Was she already stressed out after those couple of meetings?

"What is it?" she asked as she stepped up to them. "I have to call the printer's to cancel the printing of Warrior's first poster. They messed it up and misspelled Zelo's name. I have to stop it from going to press before everyone sees it."

Shin Woo laughed. "Are you always going to work this hard?"

Solbi nodded then shoved her phone in her sweater pocket. "What's up?"

"Yong Guk came to see you. I needed to get back into the room before Tae Kyung loses his mind. He obviously can't work without me."

She snorted. "He can't function without Go Mi Nyo. You're just a side dish."

Shin Woo pushed her gently in the shoulder then waved goodbye as he disappeared into the practice room. Solbi turned and looked at Yong Guk. The man in question looked down at her. She was really so short he wondered if he was going to have a neck injury if he continued to do so.

"What is it?" she asked. She wasn't annoyed or anything, more like sidetracked by something.

"If you need to call the printer first go ahead. I have something I wanted to talk to you about," he said.

She nodded and called the printer. They moved down the hallway as she talked and argued over what was slated to be printed and the changes that had to be made. Zelo was growing like a weed. In the last two years of training he had shot up nearly six inches. He was now the tallest member of the group and didn't look like he was going to stop any time soon.

By the time she was off the phone they were already at her office. He saw her name emblazoned on a plaque right outside the door. She must have done something really good to get her own office. He sat down in a chair across from her and waited until she was ready.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I'm worried about your style of promoting. Normally a band or group has a poster and a couple of songs to release upon their first television appearance. Since our time frame has been bumped up, I'm worried we won't have that. You've already cancelled the photo shoot, which we're all grateful for, but how are having selcas as our first photos going to work? If we flop, Zelo and Daehyun have to go home empty handed and bitter about their first shot at performing for the rest of their lives. I don't want that to happen. So make it clear to me how this is going to work, because I don't want my friends to be hurt because they trained for years and didn't get a shot at doing what they love," he said.

He stopped to catch his breath and noticed she was just staring at him with a gentle look on her face. It unnerved him a bit, but he was more curious than anything.

"What is it? What's wrong with anything I said?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No, nothing is wrong with what you said. I was just letting it sink in. Not many can sit across from me and talk like that. Usually my cousin yells at them, but in this case, I won't tell him.

"As for this, I want you to look at something. We came up with it in one of the meetings. I was going to show it to you tomorrow after practice, but since you're hell bent on protecting them, I'll show you."

Yong Guk watched as she pulled out her tablet and poked at it a couple of times. When she turned it around, he had to wait a moment for what she wanted tos how him to pop up. First it was their names in order of their ages. His name was red and it scrawled across the screen with such force it made him look powerful. His picture formed out of the black void and was instantly covered in red fire. The same thing happened to Himchan and Daehyun, except their pictures were in blue and green respectively.

The concept changed slightly with the maknae line. Youngjae, Jongup, and Zelo's names popped on the screen in the same fashion as the hyung line, but instead of being engulfed in colorful fire, they had wisps of silver, gold, and a bright yellow wind blowing around them respectively. It looked like something out supernatural comic book.

"Lately everyone has been doing a supernatural theme. I don't want to do that with you. Your name is Warrior. That implies you are strong and confident in what you do. Fire and air symbolize that strength and confidence. We're going to show how strong you are. I've seen your dance practice videos. You have two of the best dancing maknaes I have seen in years. No one can touch Jongup and Zelo. Daehyun's and Youngjae's vocal ranges are killer, and you and Himchan and Zelo come up with some of the best raps. Those are you strength and confidences. That's what I'm going to sell. Your talents, not a gimmick."

"What if this doesn't work? What if you suddenly decide you don't want to work with us?"

"I'm going to push you hard enough that you may hate me. There are only three weeks until your debut. You have to be as near perfection as possible to win. I don't demand perfection, but I do demand your best. So I'm changing your schedule just a bit. Hopefully you'll like it enough to want to work hard for me and this company."

Yong Guk watched her from across the desk and made a mental note to discuss everything with her. She was really going to work things out for their good. It made her a strong supporter for them.

"I'll make sure the others take selcas and have them brought to you in a few days. We'll figure this out together. But if you do us wrong, I won't defend you if they rip you a new one no matter how much I like you."

He bowed slightly and walked out of the office. Solbi watched him leave with an intrigued look on her face. He was very defensive of his group, making him a good leader. But one comment had her thinking about what he seriously meant.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: I would have had this chapter up sooner, but my dad asked me to go somewhere so I didn't write anything. So I waited and I waited and waited for about three hours. Then I finally asked him if we were going, and he said the most unnerving thing. "We're not going today." I wanted to strangle him! So instead of taking my anger out on him I went to make dinner only to have our fish frozen! You would have laughed if you saw me thawing about two pounds of fish out in our bathtub since the kitchen sink was stopped up. But we fried them and inhaled about a pound between the two of us. Now we're watching football. My mom should really learn not to leave me and my dad home alone. We cause trouble.

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The next morning the six guys filed into the company rubbing sleep out of their eyes. Even after Solbi had told them to go home, they had continued to practice. They hadn't gone full force like they usually did. Instead they had bonded and worked out things they had had a hard time on.

They had gotten home at nearly three in the morning only to get up at seven to be back in the studio at eight. They hadn't even gotten breakfast. Yong Guk had managed to get coffee in everyone, but a real breakfast was out of the question.

When they walked into their practice room they stopped. Solbi was already there dressed to work out. In fact she was already working out, but it wasn't to one of their songs. She and the choreographer were dancing to SHINee's "Lucifer", something that was nearly impossible for the best of them. There was a ranking of the dancing in the KPOP industry. It went: easy, intermediate, hard, expert, SHINee. The group had some of the hardest to mimic, and they were followed closely by B.A.P and Topp Dogg.

In fact as soon as the song ended, it rolled right into Topp Dogg's recent song "The Beat." Created for ten people, watching the choreographer and their manager actually getting the choreography correct meant they actually worked well together. They had obviously worked together before.

"There's breakfast by the wall," Solbi said as they faced them for a moment during the choreography. "Eat then sit back. We'll start in forty-five minutes."

They didn't have to be told twice. They sat down and passed out the light breakfast and watched the dancing two continue with their workout. It was an eclectic dance routine that worked every portion of the body. From SHINee to Bangtan Boys, they did the work as if their lives depended on it.

When the CD finally ended, there was a fine puddle of sweat on the floor. Jin Ki grabbed the mop and cleaned it up as Solbi toweled off and came to sit with them. Zelo handed her a bottle of water, which she accepted with a smile. She chugged half of it down before rubbing her face again and draping the towel across her shoulders.

"How did you memorize all of those?" Himchan asked as he passed her some of his breakfast sandwich.

She accepted it and said, "I don't only listen to rock music. My favorite genre is hip-hop. I like the dances with the boy groups more than the female groups."

"What genre did you dance?" Zelo asked.

"I started with ballet then I had a hamstring injury and had to stop. So I kept dancing just whatever I could. This kind of fell into my lap. I can't dance professionally but I do it to keep in shape. It also helps me understand what my groups are going through when they rehearse."

"You like to be in our lives don't you?" Daehyun asked as he shoved the remainder of his bread in his mouth.

"I like to know what you can do and what you're planned to do. It helps me figure out your schedule."

"How can you practice if you're blind in one eye?" Himchan asked. Daehyun poked him in the side. "What? We all want to know."

"Don't worry about asking me questions. I'll tell you if they're invasive. When I used to dance all the time, my choreographer broke it down in eight counts and made sure each move was in two beats or a beat and a half. Now that I dance with trainees, I have to stand on the right side of the choreographer and watch." She looked between them as they were finishing what she had bought. "Did you enjoy it?"

Zelo nodded emphatically. "How did you pay for all of this, Noona?"

"Next time you see Shin Woo, thank him. He pitched in a bit." She clapped her hands. "All right. Line up and work. There are officially thirteen days until your debut. They are finishing the music video as we speak, and you are schedule to perform live the day after its release. You should be sharp. So let's hit it!"

Officially pumped and ready to go, the six guys jumped up and stood behind Jin Ki. Solbi hit the start button and their music filled the room. The choreographer started the song for them but then stepped back to let them flow through it. He stood to the side with Solbi as she took pictures of them sweating it out.

Solbi was bound and determined to make sure the fans and company knew who she was about to debut. She had heard some of the other trainees complain about their managers being lazy and not doing anything. Then there were some who had bragged that their schedules were so easy that they didn't really have to do anything. Out of all of them, she hadn't heard these six men say anything like that. Yes, they grumbled about having to get up early for practice without breakfast, but they worked hard.

When she had been deciding what group she had wanted to take charge, she had watched hours of practice footage and recording footage. She had considered three different groups: FratTwins, Sudzy, and Warrior. FratTwins was mainly a hip-hop group that had written songs that didn't make any sense. Sudzy was a girl group with bubbly pop songs. Both groups worked hard in the studio, but the practice studio was a different story.

FratTwins didn't want to work out. They considered their dancers collateral damage when they lost their minds. Sudzy had sexy dances but they argued too much between themselves for her taste. She didn't want to argue with a group to practice.

When she had been tossed the packet on Warrior, she had almost passed it up. That is until Shin Woo had spoken highly of their leader. She had popped in the DVD at home on a whim and had watched as Yong Guk had taken care of his team. Himchan had twisted his ankle in one of the videos. While the others had practiced, he had gone down the cafeteria to get ice for his friend's ankle. In another video, she had seen him agonizing over lyrics late in the writing studio. He had a fire about him that she liked.

But it was the same for all of them. Daehyun and Youngjae had practiced their vocals together on a regular basis. She had always seen Zelo and Jongup in the dance studio working together on their dances. Yong Guk and Himchan and Zelo had produced rap tracks together. They used their time together to make wonderful music that had captivated her and had instantly made her want to work with them. She could see their future.

"What do you think?" Jin Ki asked.

"Youngjae's ankle is weak on the turn. If he's not careful, he's going to twist it," she replied. She waited as they went into another move. "Daehyun's behind about half a beat."

Jin Ki made the necessary adjustments and the dance flowed smoothly. When the song changed, the six guys lost their minds. Solbi switched from pictures to video and filmed their insanity. She tried to keep from laughing as she filmed them acting like children. They hopped around like idiots, Zelo flipped a couple of times before landing flat on his back and laughing like a hyena, and Yong Guk and Himchan did an impromptu fight scene that ended in Himchan in a chokehold.

Looking over, she saw Jin Ki doubled over in hysterics. He was laughing so hard he was crying. So this was a normal occurrence while they trained. It was the reason they worked so hard. They had some songs where they could act like buffoons and let out all the stress of the previous practice.

After the four minutes of craziness, they returned to normal. They worked hard and sweated hard for their craft. They were almost ready. There was one thing they needed to explode out on the scene and she knew exactly what it was.

She cut off the music and looked at the out of breath men. They weren't guys. They were men, even Zelo who was barely over nineteen. Himchan finally just laid face down on the floor. She could see the fog form on the floor as he breathed normally.

"Clear your schedule tomorrow night," she said.

Yong Guk straightened up though he couldn't breathe shallowly. "Why? We usually practice from six to ten."

"I know but once a week you're going to be off. Tomorrow is Sunday. You can take Sunday evenings off."

"That still doesn't explain why," Daehyun said as he wiped at his face.

"How much do you spend on dinner each night?"

"It's expensive for the six of us," Youngjae answered.

"Then one night a week it won't be. You will get a free meal and a night where you can relax. You'll be grateful for those nights when you debut because once that happens, there will hardly be a chance for you to do that."

Zelo stepped up beside her and threw his arm around her shoulder. "Are you saying you're going to make all of us dinner on Sunday nights?"

She reached up and patted him on the cheek. "Most nights yes. There will be some nights where we order pizza, but I have a huge pantry that is fully stocked. It will take an army for me to run out of food. Yes, Zelo, you will get a home cooked meal on Sunday nights."

The maknae whooped, drawing out the same reaction in his teammates. Solbi made eye contact with Yong Guk. He looked impressed, but she knew she hadn't won his total trust yet. Manager Kim had really messed with his head and he hadn't yet forgiven the other man. She could understand.

They gathered their stuff and filed out of the practice room. Solbi and Jin Ki were the only two left, and the former changed the CD in the player. Jin Ki stayed around for a bit to make sure she didn't lose her balance and hurt herself. That had been the problem she'd had right before she'd quit dancing competitively. After a while, he said his goodbyes and went to teach a class.

Yong Guk ran up the stairs and down the hallway. Of all things, he had left his phone in the practice room. He had already been halfway home when he had realized he hadn't had it. He had to turn around and run back to find it.

He pushed open the door to their practice room and stopped. He watched Solbi as she did a tumbling stunt on a blue mat before rolling into a somersault handstand. Instead of pulling her knees to her chest, she spun on her hands then pushed off, landing gracefully on her feet.

He saw the passion and fire in her eyes as she worked out alone. This was an old routine she had done plenty of times. It was engrained in her head that she could repeat it from memory. He wondered why she hadn't signed up for an agency before she had gotten hurt.

His phone started to ring and it threw Solbi off. She turned to look for the noise and overturned her turn. Yelping, she hit the floor hard and pulled her knees under her. Yong Guk ran in and sat beside her. She looked up at him then nodded.

"It was your phone," she said. "I wondered whose it was."

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She nodded again. "I'm fine. I just timed the turn wrong because the phone caught me off guard. I don't think I did any harm."

Yong Guk kept a hand on her as she stood up. When he was certain she had her feet under her, he let go. Solbi turned off the music and went to grab a towel. She wiped her face then wrapped it around her neck before grabbing her bag and his phone. She handed his device to him and led him out of the room.

"Are you sure you're okay? It looks like you're limping a bit," he said as they walked down the hallway. He looked down every so often to make sure she wasn't favoring a leg.

"I'm fine. I haven't done that dance in months so my body isn't used to it. I have to be careful though. I can't dance too much or I can reinjure myself."

"Then stop," he scolded. "We can't use you if you're injured."

She smiled as they descended the stairs. "I'll make sure I don't get too hurt. Do cuts and bruises suffice as minor damage?"

He shook his head. "No. None of it. We can't have you hurt in any way."

"Careful," she warned good naturedly. "Someone might think your being bossy means something else."

"And what if it does?"

"Then you can explain it. I'll just sit back and watch you flounder. You can make it so much worse than I can."

Yong Guk rubbed the back of his head. "Now you sound like my sister."

"I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing, but whichever, I have to go. I have to set up next week's schedule. I already have the practice rooms booked, but there are fittings and commercials for the teasers and so many other things I have to do. You guys are going to have the best debut I can muster. I promise."

She hit his chest before jogging to another section for her meeting. Yong Guk watched her disappear around the corner then checked his messages. Daehyun wanted him to pick up a pizza. Typical.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: We had a thanksgiving meal at church tonight, and I'm stuffed. I ate so much I feel like a whale. But it was good. I had fun making plans for Christmas though it's a month away. It was great. This week is going to be fat city. Literally because I will eat all week. I may not get any chapters up after Tuesday because I don't know how much internet access I will have.

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"You have lost your mind!"

"Solbi," Shin Woo warned.

She looked down at him. "No, Shin. He's messing with my hard thought out schedule. It took me six hours to hash this out and he wants to change it?! No!"

Tae Kyung closed his notebook and leveled a look at her. "I'm sorry but there was water damage last night. We have to replace all the floors. That includes your room."

"Oppa!"

"I'm not trying to sabotage you. I wouldn't do that, but you need to find a new rehearsal space."

Solbi's jaw worked. She had worked hard to get the guy's schedule where it incorporated their Sunday evenings off. She wanted them to have a fun day at some point.

She turned and started for the door. Shin Woo kicked the chair out of her way because it wasn't in her line of sight. She stormed out of the room and started for the practice room.

There was yellow tape covering the door but she bypassed it. Standing in the doorway she looked over the warped floor. It looked like a skate park. This was not what she wanted to happen. It threw her back a few hours.

She felt someone behind her and turned. Tae Kyung looked down at her then out over the room.

"I have a number for a space. You can rent it for the boys to practice," he said.

"How much will it cost?" she asked. "The company won't vouch for it. I won't ask the guys to pay their way. I can't. They already pay enough to live in their dorm," she said.

"You're resourceful. I've seen you work out in the courtyard before."

"This is different. We were just working on vocals. There are too many things for them to trip over and get hurt."

Tae Kyung watched her agonize over her current situation. She wanted her team to work together and get to the top together. She was very driven to see them succeed by their own merits. It was what had made him certain she could bring the guys of Warrior to the top. He knew he was going to lose to her but it was okay. She was going to make those six guys the second best-selling group after A.N. Jell.

Solbi sighed and shouldered her bag. She smiled tightly up at Tae Kyung. "I'll figure something out. Thanks though."

He watched her walk away and realized she was going to shoulder all the struggles of this group. One thing was going to happen. She was going to pull this off but she was going to run herself ragged doing so.

($(&

Zelo led the way up the stairs to the third floor. They were rowdy and excited. They were having a free meal. But true to their convictions, they brought drinks instead of arriving empty handed.

They had waited all day for this. It wasn't every manager that fed his or her group on a weekly basis. That would easily get expensive. But Solbi was volunteering to make sure they ate well. It also made them respect her even more.

Daehyun and Zelo were excited about the food, Himchan and Youngjae wanted to see the woman's house, and Jongup just wanted to see her music collection. Yong Guk just wanted to make sure she was okay. He was still nervous about her ankle.

Zelo rapped on the door before any of them had gotten to it. Daehyun cuffed him across the head for not ringing the doorbell. Nonetheless the door swung inwards.

"Sorry we're early," Daehyun apologized. "Zelo was a little excited and it spread to all of us."

Solbi shook her head and stepped back. "It's fine. Come on in. It's almost ready anyway."

The guys filed in and took off their shoes. Each of them gave Solbi a hug as they passed her before they scattered into the house.

Yong Guk was the last one in. He slipped his shoes off and waited until Solbi shut the door behind him. She stopped beside him for a moment before she led him in.

"How is your ankle?" he asked.

She looked down and twirled it. "It's fine. No swelling at all or pain. It's like I didn't even use it."

"Did you ice it?"

She nodded. "I'm all right. You didn't do any harm."

Yong Guk didn't believe that but he wasn't going to contradict her. She seemed to be okay so there was no need. If she was hurt she would tell him or he would know. He had suddenly put himself in the position to make sure she was okay.

Solbi walked into the kitchen to see Daehyun stirring the stew pot. She went to bump him out of the way but he bumped her first, spouting something about being a good guest. She let him have his way and went to check on the others.

"You have all the BIGBANG albums?" Jongup asked.

She nodded. "Shin Woo bought them for me when he first got signed then just kept on. I have a pretty good collection."

"Epik High?"

"Second shelf." She smiled when he found the cases he was looking for. "You can borrow them if you want to put them on your phone. It's free so I would if I were you."

The man's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Thanks, Noona!"

Yong Guk knew something was wrong by the blandness of her smile. She hadn't said anything but he could see the strain behind her eyes. She was talking to Zelo and Youngjae so he didn't want to pull her away to ask.

Before Himchan could grab her to talk about books, he motioned her over. She turned her back to the others so they couldn't tell what she was saying.

"What's going on?" he asked.

She frowned at him. "What are you talking about?"

He twirled his finger in front of his face. "Somethings wrong. I can tell by the look on your face."

He knew the answer when she sighed. "There was a water main that broke last night at the company. The practice studio was flooded and the floors have to be replaced. We've got to find a new place to rehearse."

Yong Guk sighed and rubbed his face. That wasn't what he wanted to hear, but he knew it wasn't something she had wanted to happen either. She had worked hard the last couple of days for them and now it had to seem like she was being tossed a few paces back. It wasn't what she wanted to happen.

"What do we need to do?"

She shook her head. "Don't worry about it. I'll figure something out. For the next couple of days, meet and go over the vocals and rap for the songs. It's all I can think of right now. I'll let you know when I find some place."

"It's ready!" Daehyun called from the kitchen.

Yong Guk watched Solbi walk away to help set the table. She was trying to be strong but he didn't think that she was going to make it. She may have a tough exterior and be very happy most of the time, but she couldn't shoulder all of it alone. He wanted to tell the others but right now she wanted to keep quiet about it.

Dinner was insanity. Daehyun and Zelo fought over food as Jongup sat on Solbi's right side and handed her food. He made sure she knew where everything on her right side was so she didn't stick her chopsticks in something she didn't like.

"Noona," Youngjae said as he reached across the table for some kimchi, "do you have any siblings?"

"I have a younger sister. She's in high school right now. She wants to come here but my parents won't let her. They think performing professionally doesn't make enough to put food on the table," she answered.

"But Shin Woo hyung makes a lot of money playing professionally," Zelo pointed out.

"Oppa is a special. He was making money in Busan before he even moved here. He's a master at the guitar even though he says he's not."

"Did you live with him before you started working at the company?" Himchan asked.

She shook her head. "No. I went to high school in the U.S. and started college here when I was eighteen. By the time I was twenty-two I was already graduating. I worked a year with the president on an internship before Oppa asked me to work for the company. I was already living here before he knew I was in the city."

"So you've been alone?" She nodded. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

"No one wants to take care of a blind woman."

"Then they're stupid," Yong Guk said. He felt the weird stares around the table on him but he continued eating like he hadn't said anything.

"If someone asked you out, would you say yes?" Zelo asked. Yong Guk looked up to see her answer.

Solbi sat back in her chair and chewed on the mouthful of food. She watched Yong Guk lift his head to hear her answer. "I don't know. I've never been asked out before so I wouldn't know how to respond. But the reason could be because Oppa was always super protective of me growing up. So I don't know." She shrugged then reached for her rice bowl again.

Jongup placed some kimchi in her bowl. "Don't worry too much about it. Someone will finally get some balls to do so."

She laughed and nearly choked on the rice. Zelo pounded on her back to make sure she could breathe. Youngjae made a remark about making fun of Daehyun's cooking which resulted in rice flying across the table. Solbi started laughing when pieces of it splatted across Youngjae's face.

Yong Guk looked up at the sound of her laugh. It was light and airy and beautiful to listen to. He didn't want her to stop but she started laughing so hard she couldn't breathe. Her face turned red as she started crying. But she kept laughing and that started them to laughing.

"All right," she said between bouts. She rubbed at her eyes. "Let's get this cleaned up and I don't know about you, but I love playing games when I have people over."

"Let's do it," Himchan said.

Yong Guk helped Solbi pull a couple of games from her closet as the other five cleaned the dishes with amazing speed. They were all sitting around the coffee table in the living room with coffee Himchan had somehow made on a whim.

Zelo had the first pick. He chose a card game she hadn't heard of. The maknae showed her how to play and even helped her cheat. Youngjae put her out in the third round. Daehyun chose a board game, in which Himchan somehow won. She wasn't having any luck but that was okay.

For her turn she pulled out the dart board she had had since she was ten. They split up into teams of three with Zelo sitting out and each person had a dart. The team closest to the bull's eye would win the round, and the team with most points would win.

The team of Solbi, Yong Guk and Jongup swept the four rounds because Solbi hit a bull's eye every time. Youngjae lost his temper a bit and tried to sabotage her a couple of times but it didn't matter. She still pulled it off.

By the time all the excitement died down, it was nearing midnight. They gathered their stuff and started for the door. Zelo ran back to grab a container of the stew he had saved from dinner. Solbi laughed at him as she stood in the entrance hall and watched them put their shoes on.

"What time should we meet tomorrow, Noona?" Daehyun asked.

Solbi smiled and leaned her head against the wall. "I don't know yet. I'll message you about it. There's something I have to call about in the morning."

Yong Guk looked at her, looked at the wariness creeping back into her tired eyes. The others said their goodbyes and hugged her before disappearing out the door. He waited long enough to make sure they were alone. Then he reached up and touched her face gently. He smiled down at her, waiting until she returned it before he pulled back and left the house as well.

Solbi felt bad for being dishonest with them but she didn't want them to lose their focus because she had to find a new place to practice. She wanted to make sure they could get what they needed at the best price. They might be upset that she hadn't told them the truth, but she was certain she could pull this off in the next couple of days.

Sighing, she double locked the door and flipped off the lights. She'd clean up the games in the morning. She was too tired to do it right at that moment and a little stressed as well. First thing in the morning she was going to find a suitable rehearsal space.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: Day one of the mass chaos that is the start of the holidays. Today and tomorrow I have to work on a blanket that I'm hopefully giving as a gift. The only issue is I don't have the drive to finish said blanket. That's sad but the truth. I may have to work tomorrow so if I do I will take it with me and try to get as much of it finished as I can. Hopefully I can get it done before we see my grandmother. It's her gift.

(*(*(*(*(*((*(*(

Tae Kyung found Solbi sitting in her office staring at the computer with a strangled look on her face. He still wasn't used to her wearing glasses when she was using electronics bigger than her phone. Including being blind in her right eye, she had monocular degeneration in the other. She was slowly losing the eyesight in that eye as well. To curb that, she had to wear glasses when she was on the computer or tablet.

For the last two days, he had spent most of his free time beating himself up over the fact that the company had to renovate with so many groups getting ready to debut. Solbi hadn't been in charge of Warrior very long, but she had done something Manager Kim hadn't.

She had earned their trust. He had heard them talking about her dancing with them and adjusting their choreography to suit their body types. They had had nothing but good things to say about her so far. Even this morning when he had passed them on the way to the vocal studio, they had been praising her for having them over for dinner and games. They were already under her spell.

But he wondered how many knew they were going to be displaced in the dance studio for the next few weeks? There was no doubt that she had told Yong Guk because he had had this strained look on his face. If the others had known, they would have been down trodden and wouldn't have wanted to work.

It was Solbi that was the risk. With health and vision issues, she didn't have the liberty to do everything she wanted. She knew her risks, but she had worked her butt off since she had been here and she was only twenty-six (in Korean age; international age she's twenty-five).

He heard her sigh and watched her rub her eyes. She was running on empty. Wheeling around before she saw him, he went to the coffee shop next door and grabbed two Americanos and a blueberry scone. When he returned, she was on the phone and Shin Woo was sitting in one of the two chairs. He waved and Tae Kyung sighed because he hadn't brought coffee.

"All right." She rubbed her forehead as her mouth turned down. "I understand. Thank you." She hung up and ran her hand through her hair while muttering softly under her breath.

"Don't work too hard," Shin Woo scolded gently. She glanced up at him before returning her gaze to the computer screen. "It's not worth getting upset over."

She dropped both arms to the desk and glared at him. "These guys have worked their asses off and two weeks before their debut, the dance rooms' floors are flooded and warped. Now I have to find another space to practice and each space costs about as much as my house to rent. The company won't front the bill so it will come out of my pocket. Now are you going to tell me it's not worth getting upset over?"

"We can help in paying for the dance space. You don't need to damage your health for them."

Solbi gnawed on her bottom lip as she tried to curb her temper. "Do you not even remember what it was like to struggle to do something? I wanted to be a dancer with one of the best ballet companies in the world, but because I was blind and suffered multiple injuries, I was told I couldn't do anything. You were never told that. You came out of the womb playing guitar and now look at you. You wouldn't understand what it feels like to want a dream then fail so miserably that you couldn't even face your family again."

Tae Kyung put a hand on his bassist and friend's shoulder to stop his next remark. Normally Shin Woo was the even-keeled friend, but when it came to his cousin whom he was closer to than a friend, he tended to get riled easy. Right now he just wanted to lay into his cousin because he knew the limitations she had that she was ignoring.

"I'll talk to her. I'm the one who broke the news to her. I should be the one to help her," he said.

It took a moment, but Shin Woo finally acquiesced. He got up, rounded the desk, and pressed a kiss to his cousin's forehead. It was a testament to how angry she was that she didn't hug him back. He didn't seem to mind it as he walked away from her, closing the door behind him.

Tae Kyung set the drink and scone in front of her as she donned her glasses again and set to work looking for another space. She was determined and that's what made her one of the best people in the company. She couldn't hide her emotions when she felt wronged or upset on the behalf of her charges. It made her strong and powerful, but it also meant she was left drained when she should be excited.

The first time he had even heard of her was when the current President of South Korea had been campaigning to become president. She had helped design the campaign strategy and had been meticulous on everything they had done during the election. It had showed how strong she was that she could handle pressure on the national level, and now she was working on the international level.

They had hired her sight unseen and she had been a blessing to the company in the last year. She had revamped the promotions for the company in general and had used what little things they had and used it to make the company look better. She had promoted different artists other than A.N. Jell and they had sold. Obviously it hadn't been as well as the rock band, but they were bringing in money. She was doing her job.

"Hello?" He was brought from his thoughts as he heard her answer the phone. "Oppa? It's been a while. What have you been up to?"

Tae Kyung could count on one hand the number of guys she called oppa on a regular basis: him and Shin Woo. She was older than Jeremy and the twins so she only had two people older than her. Who was this guy she was calling oppa?

Jealousy set in and he wasn't sure why. She rarely talked fondly to them so who was this fellow who was cutting in on his time? He had only been jealous one time in his life, and he was now with that girl. So why was he suddenly jealous now?

"Really? It's the old studio where you used to practice? Did you renovate it?" Solbi licked her bottom lip slowly as she listened. "Seriously? You'd rent it for that much? Don't you have other smaller studios that you can rent? We really don't need that much space. All right, all right, all right. Don't bit my head off. It was just a question. If you're going to be adamant, then I have no choice but to take it. I'll be by this afternoon with the guys. Thanks, oppa!"

"Do I even want to know?" he asked as he sat back and crossed his legs.

"Lee Kwan Jun, a guy I trained with back in Busan, went pro with his dancing. Like me, he damaged some of his nerves and can't dance competitively anymore. So he bought a dance studio in Seoul and renovated it. He says he can rent the biggest studio space for half a million Won," she explained as she hurriedly jotted something down. "If we get there now, we can practice for a few hours before they have to go home."

"Do you have them on a schedule?"

She nodded. "They can't practice after eleven at night. So far it seems to work. While they practice today, I'm going to work on the posters. They haven't seen the others yet so I want it to be a surprise. Tomorrow we have to shot the television spot so it will be late when we get into the studio."

She looked up at him and smiled. "Thanks for your help, Oppa."

Feeling justified, he nodded. "Get out of here."

Solbi laughed and left her office like the Flash. She ran downstairs and to the right so she could get to the recording studio where the guys were working on vocals. Youngjae and Daehyun turned around as she slammed the door open. The guys in the booth looked at her and quickly vacated the booth to come see what the fuss was all about.

"Where's the fire?" Daehyun asked.

She smiled so brightly she scared them a little bit. "Yesterday I was informed that we had lost our dance studio due to flooding on the second floor water main and our floors had to be replaced. For the last two days I have agonized over what I should do and if I should even tell you at all."

Youngjae looked at Yong Guk. "That's why you said we should work on vocals instead of dance. I should have known you would be in the middle of this."

Yong Guk shrugged but Solbi went on before he could say anything. "Anyway. I just got a call from an oppa I knew when I was dancing. He said he has a studio we can rent until our studio is finished. He said we can go over right now and get to work if you wanted to. It's all up to you, but we have to go now so you can be finished by eleven."

They took a minute to talk about it between themselves but she didn't mind. She wanted them to get as much work done as they could. Luckily they hadn't missed too much time since she had demanded that they be off on Sundays to rest.

"Let's go," Daehyun said after a few minutes. As everyone else was gathering their stuff, he flicked her in the forehead. "Next time something like this happens, tell us all what's going on. We can help. We're a team, and if you exclude us, it feels like you don't care what we think."

"All right. I understand. Let's go."

They followed her out of the room then out of the building. They talked loudly as they walked down the street. The new studio was only a few blocks away so they could walk without spending any money which was good.

They came up to a white building with a really peppy sign on the front. For some reason it looked like a place a girl would own, but they instantly recognized the style of the sign. Zelo looked at Solbi as she stared up at it.

"You designed that didn't you?" he asked. "Dang, Noona. What talents don't you have?"

"I don't have the gift of being quiet," she said then smiled up at him. "He's waiting. Let's go before someone else decides they want to take the place away from us."

With a new found strength, they hurried up the stairs. The place was spacious as they walked the hallways. Each room had a set of double doors that were soundproof so the occupants could practice in peace. Peeking into the first open room they saw, they noticed it was huge. They could do stunts if they so wished.

"Solbi-ah!" They turned around to find a blond headed man running down the hall towards them. "You should have told me you were here. I would have met you at the doors and showed you around."

"You should know by now that I just wander whenever I get the chance. I like to get the feel of the place on my own," she answered. Once again she was shorter than the man she was standing in front of. "How have you been, Oppa?"

"I can't complain. I make enough to pay off my mom's medical bills and then some. Plus many of the girls and guys I train go on to do bigger and better things. But I was more surprised when Han Solbi's name popped up on my email list about one of my advertised spaces. I didn't think it was you, but when I called and you answered, I knew it was you. Why do you need this space? Don't you have some at your new company?"

"We do but they were flooded and need to be repaired. I'm kind of in a time crunch at the moment."

"Well, welcome. Use whatever you need. Just make sure you note what you use so I can replace it weekly. How long will the reno take?"

She shrugged. "I have no idea. Tae Kyung Oppa didn't say. I guess it could take any amount of time since there were four of the bigger rooms that were damaged."

"Ah. All right. Just make sure you let me know two weeks in advance so I can put the space up for rent again."

She nodded and he disappeared. Himchan, ever nosy, tugged on the ends of her hair to get her attention. He pointed down the hall where the man was disappearing into another room.

"Who is he?" he asked.

"His name is Lee Kwan Jun. He and I trained together in Busan. He went on to dance in New York while I went to school in the U.S. We kept in touch until I ended up working my butt of in college. He had to quit due to a torn Achilles and started teaching to make ends meet," she answered as she led them down the hall to their designated room.

"Does he like you?" Jongup asked.

Solbi dropped to the floor and pulled her computer out of her bag. "He'd be a fool to."

Yong Guk didn't like two things about this conversation. One: he didn't like the fact that another man could be encroaching on territory that should be occupied by this group. She didn't need anything to disturb her view of them. She needed to be focused on getting them out into the public. Two: he really didn't like the way she talked about herself. She made it sound like she was the scum of the earth and everyone should stay away from her. He didn't know what made her act like that, but he would find out one day.

"All right, guys," he said as he shed his sweatshirt. "Let's get started. We only have eight hours before we have to be done for the night."

Only eight hours.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: I had to work today and it's easier to write than it is to crochet. The more chapters I get up the sooner the story will be done and you don't have to sit in limbo waiting for me to post. When Christmas break comes around, hopefully I'll be able to get two stories up over that two week time period. I have no clue really. My characters have lives of their own. But the next story will be set the world of the Heirs. Again.

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Yong Guk walked into the rehearsal room and was about to flip on the lights but stopped with his finger on the switch. He saw a silhouette over by the window and it took a minute for him to realize who it was. He looked at his phone to make sure the time he had was correct.

It was. It was five-thirty in the morning and he should be the only one there. He had left Himchan sleeping in their shared room, and the dorm had been completely dark when he had walked out of it twenty minutes ago. He should have been the only one with the mind to come to the rehearsal studio before the sun had even come up.

But he wasn't.

There sitting with her back against the alcove that made the window jut out sat Solbi. She had a cup of coffee in her hand with another sitting across from her. Her knees were drawn up and she had a blanket draped across them as she held her tablet in front of her. The light from the screen illuminated her face and the screen reflected in the lenses of her glasses. She was focused as she drew the stylus across the screen, so focused that she didn't even know he was there.

He had mixed emotions about this. Usually it was the groups that didn't get enough sleep because they had to train to get ready for the debut, but this woman was taking the name of manager to a new level. Did she even sleep? She had made their schedule so they did get enough sleep so they would be productive, but did she? Did she even take into account that they fed off her energy? If she was tired, they were going to know. It would affect their training just as much as their tiredness would affect it.

Dropping his stuff, Yong Guk left the lights off and walked across the span of the room to sit beside her. She didn't look up from whatever it was she was doing for a long time. He had already finished the second cup of coffee in front of her by the time she did. Yet when she did, she didn't seem surprised to see him sitting across from her. She looked back down at tablet without even registering it.

"You're here," she said like it was an everyday occurrence.

Flabbergasted, he watched her work. Since she knew he was there, she took her time out to show him what she was working on. The posters were starting to take shape. She had four of the six done and was planning on finishing them that day so she could get them to the printers. She had even planned out the schedule for the next couple of days.

Today they were going to work on their dances for their first two songs, then the next day they were going to do the commercial shoot. It had to be pushed back a day because the man in charge had come down with the flu and the earliest he would be back was the next day. It gave them extra time to figure out how they were going to look during the commercial.

The sun started to creep up into the sky, giving the horizon a nice red feature. His phone beeped with a new message. Opening it, he saw Solbi had sent out a message with the day's schedule. Dance practice was from nine to three. She was giving them time to do what they wanted that morning. That meant she was going to work until they arrived. He didn't like that.

Sitting up on his knees, he reached over and took her tablet from her. He clicked on the save tab and saved everything she had been working on. Then he took the tablet and placed it under his leg so she couldn't get it without pushing him over.

"This isn't funny," she said. "Give it back to me." He shook his head. "Oppa, give it back!"

Slightly shocked at her choice of works, he shook his head. "No. You've probably been here all night and have been looking at that all night. Your eyes are tired. You want us to rest but I'm pretty sure you do more when we're not around than you probably should. So until you get some sleep, I'm not giving this back."

Solbi glared at him for a long time. That stare was kind of unnerving but he wasn't budging. If she didn't take care of herself like she demanded they do, all of this was pointless. They couldn't function if their manager was sick and in bed when they debuted.

Yong Guk grabbed her by the leg and spun her around. He shoved her far enough away from him that when he pulled on her shoulder, her head hit his lap perfectly. He adjusted the blanket around her so she was completely covered. She didn't argue with him like he thought she would. Reaching over, he gently slid her glasses off her face and placed them on the other side of him. He saw her eyes fluttering as he pulled her hair off her face and tucked it behind her ear.

"What do you have to prove?" he asked. "You've worked far harder than we have. We should be the ones putting in all the extra hours to make a huge debut, yet you sit here alone working on posters that would take two hours to make."

"People think because I'm partially blind I should be sitting behind a desk where it's nice and safe. My dad even thinks that. He hated that I danced even though I could barely see. He was glad when I got hurt because that meant I could be normal. I was sixteen when I had to stop dancing. So I worked my ass off so I could be eligible to study abroad. I walked into an American high school the summer of my third year of middle school here, but it was my second year of high school there. Somehow I maintained my scholarship and was able to return for my last two years," she explained.

He felt her hand ball into a fist in his pant leg but didn't comment. "Did your dad want you to go back?"

"He was all right as long as I was top of the class. But my grades slipped my junior year by a tenth of a point because the classes I was taking were duel credit and harder than a normal high school course. I maintained my scholarship, but he started hounding me to come home at Christmas break. I refused. By that time, Shin Woo was already making it big as the guitarist for A.N. Jell. He started sending me money when my dad cut my living funds."

"You don't call Shin Woo hyung oppa?" She shook her head. "How long did he support you?"

"At least through my sophomore year in college. I went to an Ivy League school and in my sophomore year I started tutoring in Korean for extra money. I also worked at a PR firm on the weekends as well as a dance studio on weeknights. I barely had any time to go out with the few friends I had made. By then all the international students had cliqued together."

"When were you offered the PR position with the current president's campaign?"

She ticked the numbers off on her fingers. "I was still working on my senior project when it was offered to me."

"Did you go straight from there to here?" She nodded. "That's been what? Nearly two years?"

"Yeah." She yawned and nestled her head into his hip.

It didn't take but a minute for her to fall asleep. Yong Guk ran his fingers through her hair to make sure she stayed asleep. He didn't know anything other than the fact that she didn't sleep, so he wanted to do his best to make sure she got enough rest.

(*(*(*(*(*(

"Are we sure we don't know where Hyung is?" Zelo asked as they ascended the stairs to their new space.

They had gotten up to a message telling them their schedule. Daehyun had made breakfast for everyone. That was when they had noticed that Yong Guk was missing. Himchan said he hadn't been in the room when he had woken up so they really didn't know where he was. All the messages they had sent him had come back unanswered. It was a mystery they wanted to solve.

But they had to head to the rehearsal space. Daehyun had tried to get an answer from their leader, but even his phone call had gone unanswered.

"I'm sure he'll be here shortly. He couldn't have gone far," Himchan said as they pushed the door to the rehearsal room open. "He wouldn't leave us without some sort of word about where he was going. He probably didn't go far anyway."

"He didn't go far indeed. Look." Youngjae pointed into the room, in which Zelo had to stand on his tiptoes to see all the way in.

Across the room they could see Yong Guk sitting with his back against the window. He was relaxed as he sat quietly. They could hear music filtering through the quiet room. But that wasn't the most interesting part. The interesting part was who was in the room with him.

For some reason they couldn't figure out, Solbi was in the room with him but she was asleep. The way she was situated, it looked like Yong Guk was protecting her. It was such a peaceful moment that they weren't sure they wanted to interrupt.

That was taken care of for them when a phone rang. Solbi shifted then sat up to grab her phone to shut off the noise. Across the room, they could see her rub her forehead then turn to look out the window. She said something to Yong Guk that none of them could translate, but whatever it was made their leader smile.

"Noona!" Zelo pushed through the others and ran into the room. About a foot from them, he jumped on his belly and slid across the floor. "You're here already?"

Solbi rolled her neck. "Yeah. I'm usually here before you." She tossed the blanket off her and stood. "I'll be right back."

They watched her disappear out the door before they bombarded Yong Guk. Crowding around the man, they started asking a whole bunch of questions. Yong Guk set the tablet behind him so they wouldn't break it.

"What do you want to know?" he asked when he got irritated with them enough to finally question the.

"Do you like Noona?" Zelo asked right off the bat. Yong Guk looked at him. "Since you met her, you've done nothing but hang around her. It's easy to see you like her."

Daehyun cuffed him in the back of the head. "Then why did you ask?"

"You better hurry and ask her out, Hyung," Himchan said. "The owner seems to like her."

The thought pissed him off. Just as he was curbing his temper, the door opened and Solbi returned with Kwan Jun following her. The man had a breakfast sandwich and a cup of coffee.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

"Everything's fine. We have to practice so you have to go away." She pushed him out the door and locked it. "I don't know why I did that. He has a master key."

Just as she said that, the door unlocked. Kwan Jun stuck his head in the door. "I forgot to ask you something."

Annoyed she looked at him. "What?"

"What are you doing tonight?"

The guys held their breaths as they watched her. She looked at Kwan Jun for a long time before she turned away from him. She walked over to her stuff that was beside Yong Guk and the wall and rummaged around. Pulling her keys out of her bag, she slipped one off and returned to the door. She tossed it to Kwan Jun.

"Take it. I'll pay for yesterday's and today's use, and we'll find another space to rehearse," she said.

Kwan Jun frowned as he looked at the key. "Wait. You don't have to leave."

"Apparently I do because you seem to think that simply because I am renting from you that I will go out with you since I'm so in your debt. I'd rather pay twice as much than do that. So take your key and go ahead and put this place up for rent again. I'll find somewhere else."

"You're as feisty as ever."

"And you're still an asshole. Is that how you think you're going to pick up women? You're lucky I don't turn you in for solicitation. Last I checked prostitution was illegal."

"It wouldn't stand in court."

She shrugged. "Maybe not but I could bury you in court costs to where you had to resort to something that would get you out of debt. Don't mess with me, Kwan Jun."

"I guess I'll put it up for rent again. I'll bill you for the days you used it."

"Kwan Jun," she said as she caught him before he walked out the door, "if it's more than the two days we used it, I will sue you." She watched the door close then walked back over to get her stuff. "Let's go."

"Where are we going to go?" Zelo asked.

"We'll go to my house for now. I'll call Shin Woo and see if I can pull some favors there."

Daehyun and Yong Guk shared a look as they walked out the door. They had no idea what was going on but they had to find a place to practice soon or their debut was going to be iffy.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: I'm totally procrastinating but I have this story stuck in my head now. I have to get this chapter out before I forget. Tomorrow I may write one chapter then work on my blanket. This might change.

(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(

Shin Woo stood at the door to his cousin's house and waited until someone opened it. He wasn't sure why she wanted all these mirrors, but he was feeling guilty since he had basically chewed her out a few days ago.

Normally he talked to her on a daily basis, but when she was mad, she didn't talk to him. It had always been the one thing she had done to tell him she was made even when they had been kids. She would get mad at him and would disappear into another room for hours on end. He would go in search for her and she would be dancing. It was her way of coping with her anger.

The door always swung open when he least expected it. He was nearly caught in the nose by the door opening. Instead of his cousin, he came face to face with Zelo. The younger man looked surprised then a slow smile spread across his face. He beckoned them in, standing back as Shin Woo led the four men with him inside.

It was mass chaos when he shucked his shoes. Music was playing loudly and he saw five men dancing in sync. Solbi sat in front of them with her camera, videoing their practice. Just one look at her and he knew she was worn out. The look in her eyes was so tired she was about to keel over.

The music stopped and the guys bent over gasping for breath. Solbi hit stop on her camera and set it on the table beside her before she stood. Cautiously she crossed the room.

"What happened to your new studio?" he asked.

"It was rented out by Lee Kwan Jun," she said.

Instantly he was angry. "Did he do anything to you? Last time he got handsy."

She shook her head and shrugged his arms off. "No, he didn't touch me, but I paid for the two days we used it. It took most of my paycheck for last month and half of this month's."

"Do you have enough money to eat on?"

"Yes, but I can't afford another practice studio. So I didn't the only thing I know how to do. I improvised. That's why I called you for the four big mirrors they took out of our studio. I'm converting my living room until the debut."

Shin Woo looked around the living room. They had already moved the couch into the hallway and the coffee tables were in the kitchen. Her bookshelf had been moved, probably into one of the bedrooms, and the throw rug was gone.

He instructed the men to align the mirrors along the walls. They made sure things were even before they respectfully left. Shin Woo looked at his cousin and wondered when she had suddenly began acting like a responsible adult.

"Do you have enough room for all of this?" he asked. She nodded but it wasn't her usual happy nod. He stepped forward to hug her and she stepped back. Nervous, he waved his hand in front of her face. She didn't react. "Solbi, when was the last time you went to the doctor?"

"A few weeks ago. Why?"

"Have you been using your tablet for extended periods of time recently?"

"She's been working on posters and the commercial for us," Daehyun said. His voice tapered off when he saw Shin Woo's face darkening.

"Solbi! You can't do that!" the oldest man scolded.

"Don't yell at me!" she yelled right back, shocking everyone. "I know the risks, and I don't need you to crawl up my ass every time I decide to do something! You're acting just like my dad and that really pisses me off!"

Her eyes turned red but she didn't cry. It was typical. No matter how angry or sad she got, she never cried. It was a condition that had accompanied her partial blindness. She had dry eye and that made it hard for her to produce tears. She took medicine for it.

Yong Guk stepped between the warring cousins and held his hand up to make sure they didn't gang up on him. He looked between the two of them a couple of times before he slid his hand down Solbi's arm and took her hand. She squeezed it in return.

"What are you talking about? What's going on that we don't know?" he asked.

"I have macular degeneration. My retina is slowly deteriorating. Using the computer makes it worse because of the bright light. At the moment I can see you, but you're blurry. It's one of the reasons I wear glasses when I'm on my tablet or computer. The lenses are polarized so I don't get the blaring light from the LCD screen," she said.

"What does that mean?"

"In short, I'm going completely blind." The silence that filled the house was palpable. "Normally this doesn't affect people my age. The usual ages are over fifty. But I was born with advanced genes. Everything that's happened to me typically happens to older adults. Well, except the Achilles and tendon damage. That's universal."

"How can you laugh about this?" Jongup asked.

Solbi looked at him and he was near tears. "My vision started to get splotchy when I was in college. I've known for years that this was going to happen. I take the medicines I'm supposed to take and I wear my glasses and sunglasses when I'm in extreme light."

"How much time do you have?" Daehyun asked.

She shrugged. "No one knows for sure. It could be years or months. I go in once a month to see if they can stop the progression. So far the medicine has for the time being, but it will stop working."

Zelo threw himself against her, grabbing her in his arms and holding her tightly against him. Youngjae and Himchan followed. They rocked her backwards that her hand fell away from Yong Guk's as she was enclosed by five men.

Yong Guk looked over at Shin Woo. Grief stricken, the man looked sick. It suddenly made sense why he had been so protective. If he had known she was legitimately going blind, he would have changed his thoughts towards her as well. He would have done something more.

They heard Solbi starting to soothe the others and looked back. She was slowly going through all of them. Himchan let go first and stepped back, followed by Youngjae and Daehyun. With the hyung line officially away from her, she was able to focus her attention on Zelo and Jongup.

Carefully she took the maknae's face in her hands and said something to him. Zelo was enraptured as she spoke to him. He nodded and his curls bounced. He hugged her once again then let go. She turned to Jongup and squeezed his cheeks. He laughed and the tears that had been sitting on his bottom eyelids spilled over. Like a mother would, she wiped them away as she spoke to him. He nodded then she ruffled his hair.

"Maybe she was meant to come to the six of you," Shin Woo said. Yong Guk looked at him. "Even when we lived at home, she would balk up at me if I said anything after her father made her mad. She never acted like this with me. I knew what she needed simply because I knew her, but she never told me anything."

"What do you want me to do?" Yong Guk asked.

"She won't let you do anything. You should learn to watch her and figure out what she needs based on her body language. It's not easy but you'll get really good at it after a while."

"You're saying that like you won't be here."

"We won't. A.N. Jell has to head to Japan tomorrow for two weeks so we won't be here for your debut. I need someone to watch her so she doesn't do something stupid."

"We'll watch her. Go on your trip."

Shin Woo nodded. He looked at his cousin once again. They had meandered into the kitchen where Daehyun was slicing apples. Somehow Solbi had pulled caramel dip out of the fridge. It was like a dog to a food bowl the way the others swarmed it.

"She's not the same person I knew even a week ago," he said. "What have you done to her?"

The leader shook his head. "I don't know."

"Just take care of her."

Yong Guk watched Shin Woo let himself out before he went to eat with his friends. Just as he found a spot around the island, Jongup smeared caramel all over Zelo's face. Indignant, the maknae tried to retaliate but it failed miserably. Caramel ended up all over the counter. Solbi stepped in between them and kept them from fighting over something stupid.

"Clean it up. Now," she ordered. The two sullenly wet paper towels and wiped up the mess. "What did Oppa want?" she asked as she monitored.

"He wants us to watch out for you while he's in Japan. He won't be here for our debut and he wants to make sure you don't overwork yourself," he answered. "Speaking of overwork, I'm confiscating your tablet and computer tonight. You can keep your phone but those devices are coming with me."

Solbi glared at him as he took a bite of apple. "Now you're starting to sound like Shin Woo."

"This has nothing to do with your condition. I want to make sure you rest. If we rest, so do you. We have to share the weight of this. We will work with you to get this out. You just have to trust us."

She stared at him for the longest. In that time, Zelo and Jongup finished cleaning and the others were doing dishes or getting ready for dinner. They were already working together to get things ready for them to work. They had just made themselves at home so they could do so.

"All right," she said. "Let's get to work after dinner."

A few hours later the entire house was cleaned. Leftovers were sitting in the fridge and six computers had taken over the dining room table. Four people were working while three people had passed out. Himchan, Daehyun and Yong Guk were working on the remaining posters as Solbi supervised. Zelo, Youngjae and Jongup had passed out about an hour ago and weren't showing any signs of getting up.

Solbi rubbed her eyes and tilted her head to pop her neck. She was exhausted. She had only gotten four hours of sleep before hell had broken loose. Now she was running a studio out of her house and finishing everything that should have been done two weeks ago. At that moment she wanted to strangle their former manager.

Yong Guk looked up and immediately saved his work then turned his computer off. He snapped at Himchan and Daehyun and they did the same. Without even asking, he walked to the hall closet and pulled out three mattresses and blankets and enough pillows to suit a small army. He set them up in the spare room. Apparently they were all staying the night without giving her any warning.

Himchan and Daehyun passed him with Zelo, Jongup and Youngjae on their way to the bedroom. Yong Guk returned to the living room to find Solbi taking her medication. She looked so small in the giant house. He walked over and took her glass from her and to the kitchen. He returned to her and held out his hand. She took it and he led her to her bedroom.

Solbi didn't care that he was in there. She started changing into her pajamas without preamble. When she turned around, he was a bright red. She laughed a little then went to get into bed. He was beside her instantly, helping to tuck her in even though she didn't need it.

"We should be able to finish the posters tomorrow. I should get the commercial rough cut tomorrow. We'll make notes and send it back for edits," she said as she bit back a yawn.

Yong Guk smiled as he ran his hand over her head. "Don't worry about that right now. You need to rest. Catch up on your sleep."

He started to pull away but she caught his hand. "Don't go."

Laughing, he nudged her over and climbed in the bed. Instead of having her head on his thigh, she rested it on his chest. He knew he wasn't going to be going anywhere, and in the morning he was going to get hell for it, but he really didn't care. As long as she slept, he was fine doing whatever she wanted.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: I worked all day on my blanket and I'm still not done. All I have left is one more row then the border. It's almost done. It will take an hour tops to finish. Meanwhile, while I let my wrist settle, I'm going to finish this chapter. I let it percolate for a few hours and now I think I got it.

(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(

"You know, it's horribly obvious when we find the two of you together like this two days in a row."

Yong Guk was tired but he still opened his eyes a looked around. Daehyun and Zelo were sitting on the floor by the bed, Himchan was by the headboard, and Youngjae and Jongup were standing at the foot. They had completely surrounded the bed with their craziness.

For a moment he didn't know what was going on. He didn't know what they were talking about. That is, until he shifted to get up. When he did that, he realized there was a steady weight on his right side. A brief thought of paralysis went through his mind until his eyes actually focused on what was beside.

Not what, but who. Curled affectionately around him was Solbi. She had her head on his shoulder, an arm thrown around his waist and one knee wedged in between his. Unlike his roommates/teammates, she didn't have an ugly face when sleeping. He felt her moving her hands in her sleep, but that was it.

That's all he needed to see for his slight irritation to wane away. He remembered that she had told him to stay. He didn't know why and he didn't care. Ever since he had met her, there had been some sort of mutual feelings between them. She was a hard worker and she wanted things done a certain way because she knew how to make a play. But she was also at a severe disadvantage because of her sight. She didn't use it as a crutch, but after last night's revelations, he knew she was going to have someone help her on a regular basis.

He tried to move and she made an agitated noise. They all looked at her when she nestled her head further into his shoulder. Zelo buried his face in the mattress to keep from laughing.

Finally Yong Guk gently moved her and sat up so she couldn't latch on again. He looked back as she rolled onto her belly and turned her head away from him. It was a textbook childlike moment.

He pushed his friends out of the room and closed the door behind them. While they went to the kitchen, he went to the bathroom to wash up. When he returned, they had already started making breakfast. By they he meant Daehyun and Youngjae. Himchan and Jongup were busy packing lunches while Zelo cleaned as they went along. Obviously something was going on that he didn't know.

"We have to be in the recording booth at nine this morning for the radio spots," Himchan said. "President Ahn just called and told us that we had to take the only open spot. It's not on the schedule but it came from the president. I don't think we have the right to refuse."

"What's the radio spot?" he asked as he poured a cup of coffee. "Himchan! Why don't you clean up your mess when you make your crazy coffee drink?"

"Sorry!"

They continued their morning routine until breakfast was ready. Zelo disappeared for a few minutes. They heard him talking first before he returned pushing Solbi in front of him. She clearly wanted to go to bed but he wasn't having it. He finally just picked her up in a fireman's carry and plopped her down at the table as Daehyun set it.

Yong Guk popped his friend in the head as he passed with two cups of coffee. He sat down across from Solbi and slid the mug across the table to her. She wasn't awake and he didn't know if her inability to focus was because of the lack of sleep or the splotchy vision.

"Noona, the cup is at two o'clock," Jongup said as he set a bowl in front of her.

"Thanks," she muttered as she took hold of it.

"You use the clock as a means to find things?" Yong Guk asked.

She nodded as she rubbed her eyes. "You should see my desk. Everything is set according to my computer which is at twelve o'clock. It's how I always find things after looking at the screen. My vision is a little dimmed after looking at the bright screen."

"You should be careful."

"I usually am. I have a lot to do so it just happened that I spent a lot of time in front of the computer recently."

"Speaking of a lot to do," Himchan said as they all sat down to breakfast, "President Ahn set us up with studio time today to do the radio spots. It's the only time available. I know you wanted us to work on the new dances for the third and fourth songs, but we can't pass this up."

Solbi nodded as she took a piece of rolled egg from Daehyun. To see him share food was amazing since he liked to eat so much. "If that's the only time, go ahead and use it. Jin Ki won't be available until this afternoon anyway. Once you're finished with that, we'll finish the posters and send them to the printers. They'll be ready by next Monday and we can take a day off the put them up before your debut."

"That sounds good to us," Youngjae agreed. "Oh and one more thing. After all this is over, will you consider finding an assistant?"

She tilted her head at him. "An assistant?"

Zelo nodded emphatically, curls bouncing. "An assistant. We discussed it last night."

"How did you discuss anything passed out on the couch? Telepathy?"

Everyone laughed at the maknae's indignation. He waved his chopsticks in front of his face. "No, it wasn't telepathy, but we have been talking about it before we even knew you had mono…menacoul…what is it?"

"Macular degeneration."

"Yeah, that big word. Would you consider it? We're all worried about you. Hyung told us that even after we left the studio at the correct time, you stayed behind and worked on the posters all night. He said you were there when he got there at five in the morning. We all want to work hard, but if your condition worsens because of electronics, you need someone who can use the electronics that you can boss around."

"He's right," Jongup seconded. "Once we debut and do well, we'll be working almost nonstop. You'll have to plan our schedule and keep us on task. You can't do that and watch over everything else. You'll need someone you can trust to help you."

Yong Guk looked at his friends and thought how intelligent and grown up they were. They had probably discussed it this morning before they had come to get them up. They had taken his exact thoughts and had put them in words that wouldn't be heard as brash or impolite.

Solbi sighed. "I'll consider it. I haven't lost my vision completely and I can still see enough to write. There's computer software I can use to speak the passwords, sentences, and schedules onto the screen and to send them. It won't cost that much, but I'll think hard on it. I'm not going to make any promises."

"We just want you to think about it. And you have to tell us when your eyes are bothering you. We're not mind readers. We won't know something is wrong unless you tell us," Jongup said. He reached over and ruffled her hair. "You're making our dreams come true so we want to help you in any way possible."

She swatted at him, knocking his arm off her shoulders. "You can help me by cleaning up from breakfast while I get ready for work."

They laughed as she got up and disappeared down the hallway to what they knew to be the bathroom. Yong Guk looked down at her bowl and noticed she hadn't eaten much more than the rolled egg and soup Daehyun had made.

It took a few minutes for them to finish breakfast. Yong Guk took Solbi's and covered it up. He wasn't certain when she'd think to eat again while they were working. It was a bad habit he had realized she had. It was going to drive him nuts.

They didn't have any extra clothes so they were going to have to go back to their dorm to change. The leader sent them back after they cleaned the kitchen. He hung around until he heard the shower shut off. He had enough decency to wait until she was in her bedroom putting on clothes.

"I need your help for a minute," she said as she towel dried her hair.

He followed her into the bathroom where she handed him the hairdryer and a brush. Efficiently he worked through the tangles with the brush then blew out her hair in a timely manner. Years of helping his sister had taught him the right and wrong ways of blow drying a woman's hair.

When it was completely dry, he ran the brush through her hair until it shone like the sun was in it. He handed it back to her and she stowed it in a bin on the wall. She started to turn away from him and he caught her arm. Turning she looked up at him, tilting her head slightly in question.

"What are you doing tonight?" he asked.

(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(

"Ahh, jeez, I'm late," Solbi muttered as she packed her bag. "Then again I'm always late."

Zelo turned around in his seat, the noise from his game dinging in the background. "At least you're consistent. Where are you going?"

"I don't know, but it better be decently lit because I can't see really well at night. It's why I don't drive."

"Is that because of the degeneration?" She nodded. "If you need me, Noona, call me."

She laughed as she stood then kissed his forehead. "I will, but I don't think I'll need it. Have a nice night off."

He waved. "Bye."

Solbi took the stairs instead of the elevator down to the front lobby. Yong Guk was waiting just inside the doors as she hit the last step. He checked his watch for the last time before she slid up beside him.

"Sorry," she said. "Zelo and I were working on lyrics. He's actually become a decent lyricist. Give him a little more time and he could totally write an entire album by himself."

Yong Guk smiled. "It's all right. Are you ready to go?"

She nodded and he took her hand. As he led her out, she finally thought to ask, "Where are we going?"

"You mentioned this morning that you liked Thai food. I spent my free time looking for the best restaurant then I made a reservation. We're already late because of my crazy maknae."

"Our maknae. He's equally mine as he is yours, but he was playing a game when I left so I think he got bored."

Yong Guk laughed as they walked down the sidewalk. It was peaceful without the other five. He adored his members but sometimes they were just out there. Youngjae and Daehyun were the ones who were always bickering about food or space in the living room for everyone's stuff. Sometimes everyone argued about which chores which person did.

Solbi could smell the curry before they even walked up to the restaurant. It was so bright on the inside that it shone out onto the sidewalk. She couldn't stop her mouth from watering. Usually she had to eat alone so she hadn't gone out. She hated to eat alone so she usually bought something and worked through dinner. But now she was going to get to eat something she really loved.

Yong Guk led her through the crowd of people and held out her seat. He pushed up her seat then rounded the table to take his own. He opened the menu and had to laugh at the crazy Korean pronunciation from the Thai language.

"This would be so much easier if I could understand what they had written," Solbi joked. He laughed and translated what he thought was correct. She looked at him like she thought he was a moron. "It's Gaeng Kaew Wan, not whatever you just said."

"Thai is not my first, second or third languages. Sue me."

They ordered Gaeng Kaew Wan and ate the dish in peace. They talked about their pasts, mostly Yong Guk's because he already knew most of Solbi's. He told her about his parents, his older sister and his older twin brother that was also a rapper.

He told her about growing up in a rural area and learning at a young age what it meant to earn a dollar and take care of his family. His father had to travel for work a lot and that left a lot on his mother' shoulders so every time he got to do something for her, he did it. Even now at twenty-six he still sent home money every month.

When dinner was over, he paid for dinner and they walked down the street. They wandered until they came to a cake shop. Solbi had a giant sweet tooth so she pulled him in once he said cake. Instead of cake, they ordered two eclairs and a coffee to share since Solbi refused to share sweets and Yong Guk was short on money.

"Why do you like sweets so much?" he asked as he was licking the remnants of the chocolate off his spoon.

"My dad wouldn't let us eat sweets except on our birthdays. If he ever found them in the house, he would throw them out in front of us and make us kids go to bed without dinner. He was very frugal," she explained.

"He sounds like an ass."

"He is. He blamed my mother for my blindness so he deprived all of us of anything we ever loved."

"You never said what caused your blindness?"

"My umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck long enough it deprived me of oxygen during delivery. When I was born I was blue and the doctors didn't think I'd survive. I did obviously, but when they did the vision test, my right eye didn't move like my left one. They did a pen light test and realized I was completely blind in my right eye. My father who had been excited about having children balked at having a disabled child and had nothing to do with me for two year. When Ta Bi was born healthy, he finally started to take notice. By that time I was in ballet and spent my afternoons and evenings dancing or studying."

Yong Guk smiled and pointed his spoon at her. "That's why you're so passionate. You got your father's temper."

"But I got my mother's gentleness."

They finished up and headed back to her house. It was nearing midnight and they had an early day.

Yong Guk led her up the stairs to her place and stopped to wait as she punched in the pass code. She pulled the door open and turned to look up at him. He could tell her eyes were tired just by the way she looked at him.

Cupping her face in his hand, he ran his thumb gently over her cheek before he leaned in. But instead of kissing her on the lips like she had anticipated, Yong Guk kissed Solbi on the forehead. It was gentle and sweet and so much more memorable than a simple kiss on the lips.

"I don't want to pressure you," he whispered. "I know you're still unsure of this so take your time. We're all busy getting ready for our debut so I won't say anything more about it."

Solbi watched as he stepped back with a smile. He waved briefly then walked back down the stairs. She didn't know what she was going to do about him but she could figure that out later.


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: I was dreaming about this chapter last night. I didn't want to dream about it because then I would have to get up and write this chapter. It was three o'clock in the morning! You have to be dying for me to get up and do anything productive at three in the morning after I've just woken up. So I started talking to myself to get the dream to change so I wouldn't have to get up and write it. I'm sure you wouldn't have minded, but I'm on break and don't want to get up. I want to be lazy.

Oh, this chapter is how I wanted the story to go so please don't kill me in the comments. Second, thanks to whomever also favorited this story! It means a lot! I hope you like it enough to come back and read some more of my other stories and future ones to come. Review any time and feel free to give me ideas!

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"Oppa!"

Shin Woo smiled as he heard the frantic voice he was used to. He looked over at Tae Kyung and rolled his eyes. Immediately the other man knew exactly who he was talking to and smiled before looking back down at his phone.

"What is it, Solbi?" he asked.

"Tonight is the debut. I don't know what to do! Everything is done!"

He laughed and leaned his head against the window. They were sitting in traffic. Tae Kyung was on his phone, Jeremy was playing a game on his tablet, and Mi Nam was asleep. They were getting ready for their next radio spot for that was at the same time as Warrior's debut. They were going to see if they could stream the performance while on the radio.

"Did you get the posters sent out and set up in front of the TV station?" he asked.

"Did you miss the part of everything's done?"

Even panicking she was snarky. "I'm just making sure you didn't leave anything out."

"Oppa!"

He started laughing on the phone at her indignant tone and her second use of oppa. She had never called him that unless she was in trouble or needed something done. All that was rare because she didn't care that she was in trouble as long as she got what she wanted done. Right now she felt she was in trouble.

He sobered and stared out the window as they didn't budge in traffic. "You didn't spend all that time in front of a computer did you?"

He heard her sigh on the other end. "No, we actually took turns finishing everything. Yong Guk wouldn't let me near a computer unless it was to answer email or send out a schedule to Ahn. Those six men a very brilliant when it comes to computer applications."

"I knew I liked Yong Guk for a reason."

"What?"

"Nothing. All right listen to me, Solbi. Make sure you're at the station an hour and a half early. They may have to move your call time up. You want those guys to be in full makeup and stage costume as soon as possible. It makes you look better if you're organized. Now I'll be in a radio show for nearly two hours so I won't be able to call immediately after their debut, but I'll call after the show. Is that okay?"

She hummed on the other end. "Just make sure you bring me home something good."

"Don't I always?"

"No, last time you brought home that stupid waving cat. Do you know how annoying that rotor is when you're trying to sleep at night?"

He laughed again at her. "Its name is Maneki-neko."

"Its name is creepy. Don't bring another one of those." There was noise in the background. "All right, I have to go. Zelo and Daehyun are arguing about kimbap. What they don't know is I'm about to steal it from them. Bye, Shin Woo."

Noticing she had dropped the oppa, Shin Woo heard an indignant yell on the other end followed by arguing before the line cut out. He looked at his phone with a shake of his head and put it back in his pocket.

"How is everything back home?" Jeremy asked.

"I'm sure you heard the ending. They seem to get along really well. Yong Guk has kind of taken over making sure my stubborn cousin doesn't go overboard with computer usage," he explained.

"If you're not careful, you may have a new cousin-in-law," Tae Kyung warned.

"I'm not sure you know this, but rookies aren't supposed to date their first six months after debut. Solbi knows this."

"And yet she and Yong Guk have forged a bond as deep as ours with our girlfriends. Does that sound vaguely familiar to anyone?"

"Just let them be," Mi Nam said from the back. They all turned to look at him. "Think about it. She's scarier than Tae Kyung on a bad day."

Jeremy snorted. "You just say that because she decked you for being the asshole you are." He covered his mouth with his hand. "Did I just say that? Oh, yes I did."

"Why are you so comfortable with Yong Guk?" Tae Kyung asked.

"He doesn't treat her like she's an invalid. I hate to admit it but I do that when I think she's working too hard. It always leads to a fight and I always feel like an ass afterwards. Yong Guk doesn't do that. When she called about the mirrors, I called her out on staying up all night and using a computer when doing so. I forced her to explain why I was so worried."

"Did they freak out?" Jeremy asked. "I know I did when I heard."

"Yes and no. The younger members did. Yong Guk on the other hand stood between us until he got the whole story. I don't know what he thought we'd do, but he was firmly between us when she lost her temper. He didn't think anything of it though."

"Leave him alone then," Tae Kyung advised. "He seems to be good for her. Once you get married, you won't really have the time to keep up with her health needs. Yong Guk can if he plans to stay around. She's his manager. It works in her favor."

Shin Woo wasn't so sure. He had been the one the brunt of the medical issues had fallen on because his uncle was a little on the insane side. He refused to take care of his daughter unless it benefitted him. Yet Solbi took care of them with everything she had. If he relinquished the medical bills, it was going to fall on Solbi and Yong Guk. The former was probably able to handle it, but the latter was financially strapped for money. He couldn't support her just yet, and he was forbidden to take on an extra job. It was going to be hard on both of them and he wasn't sure their relationship would hold up.

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Solbi listened to the light-hearted bickering of the guys as they sat in the makeup chairs. Zelo and Daehyun were sharing candy, much to the chagrin of the makeup artists. The other four were content just to talk to each other as their faces were being gunked up as Himchan called it.

They had finally made it. The last seven days they had barely gotten any sleep. They had split up into three groups to finish everything. Solbi had flitted through the groups supervising their works but she couldn't help. All six of them had taken every electronic she owned except her phone. She couldn't do much with that so she had just watched the guys do their own work.

They hadn't seemed to mind in the least. They always did things according to a schedule they had set up. Instead of staying at the dorm like was usual for trainees, they had started camping out in her house. They had taken over the spare room and had filled the fridge up with junk food. They worked on lyrics and whatever promotional stuff they needed in the morning and had vocal and dance practice of an evening. Somehow they managed to have fittings and meals in between then, but they worked like a well-oiled machine.

They had become a tight knit family in the last few weeks. They didn't go out alone if they didn't have to. Where one went, usually two more followed. They were always together but it didn't bother them too much because the most they fought was petty bickering bouts.

Solbi didn't know how it would change once they debuted in an hour. She really didn't want it to change. She liked it the way it was now, but she knew these guys had worked hard to get here. She wasn't going to stop their progress simply because she didn't want anything to change. This was what they wanted. She wasn't going to stop them from achieving their dreams.

"Noona!" She looked up at Zelo's happy call. He got up from his chair and turned his head from side to side. "How does it look? I think I may look like a cat."

"You're not a cat, Zelo," she said. "You're a kitten, a very tall kitten." He smiled at the comparison and went back to Daehyun's chair to pick on him.

She met Yong Guk's eyes in the mirror across the room. He knew exactly what she was thinking and he somewhat agreed. He didn't want things to change because once he became popular, he wouldn't be able to come out with his relationship right away. The company frowned upon dating as a rookie even though his girlfriend would be his manager.

"Warrior! You're up next!" the stage manager called.

The guys stood, nervous energy palpable. As they walked out the door, they each stopped and hugged Solbi before they followed the person with a headphone. After a few seconds, Solbi was left alone.

It took another thirty minutes for them to perform, but when they did, they killed the stage. Their choreography was on point and the vocals and rap were amazing. All their work paid off. They had finally hit the television scene ten hours after their music video had debuted. They were officially out to the world. Now they just had to wait until they shot to the top.

Excited chatter filled the room after the show had finished. They didn't bother taking their makeup off. They changed clothes and gathered their bags. There was a car waiting for them outside. They were going for a celebratory dinner on the president's expense. They were going to eat good and have fun. Daehyun was already talking about how much he was going to put away.

Yong Guk touched Solbi's shoulder in the front seat. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She nodded and pulled off her glasses. "I'm fine. I was just sent an email asking if you could perform on two more shows in the next two days. I obviously agreed. You're doing really well. You beat the newest rookie group by six thousand points."

"That's not what was bothering you is it?"

Solbi smiled at how intuitive he was. He should be. They had spent every waking moment together for the last two weeks. "I'm just thinking long term at the moment. I need to figure out some new marketing techniques to get you into the overseas market."

"If you need help, let us know."

She nodded and he sat back. He wasn't convinced that was the only thing bothering her. The look on her face said it wasn't, but he wasn't going to argue with her in front of everyone. If she wanted to tell him, she would in her own time.

They were halfway to the restaurant when there was a loud pop. The car swerved violently to the right and from the back window they could see sparks flying out the back. The driver put his blinker on and tried his best to go to the shoulder of the road.

Headlights came up on them fast. A car honked its horn seconds before it slammed into the back of the van. The van should barely have felt it, but the velocity of the other car send it careening into the guardrail. The impact sent the van onto its front two wheels where it stood precariously for a long terrifying moment before flipping onto its hood.

The sound of metal crunching was disgusting, almost as if they had broken bones in their bodies. The car stopped after sliding briefly on the concrete and grass.

"Is everyone okay?" Yong Guk asked as he unbuckled his seatbelt and fell to the now floor of the vehicle. He groaned at the hard impact. "Unbuckle and let's get out so the emergency teams can clean this up."

Kicking hard, he knocked the window free and allowed his members to climb out. He kept count of all of them as they crawled out the hole. Zelo had a little trouble getting his extra-long limbs out but he was finally free.

"Miss! Miss!"

Turning around, Yong Guk looked to see what was going on. The driver was sitting on the hood and he was kneeled over something. That something happened to be Solbi's body. She was crumpled to the floor and wasn't responding.

Dread went through his body as he looked at her. He couldn't get to her at this angle and the emergency crews were just starting to arrive. He crawled out and ran around the hood before dropping to his knees to look through the shattered passenger window. He could see the woman's face, but she was unconscious.

"What happened?" he heard behind him.

Himchan was the one to answer. "We had a flat tire and were pulling off to fix it when the car back there hit us at top speeds. We hit the guardrail and flipped it."

"Sir!" Yong Guk called, cutting off his friend. They all looked at him. "We have someone trapped in the front seat. She's unresponsive and may have a concussion."

He met his members' shocked gazes as he was pushed away from the car. Within a matter of minutes, they had the window knocked out and were pulling Solbi from the car. They heard the rescue teams state that she was still breathing but when they carted her past them, they saw so much blood it was hard to focus.

"Gentlemen, if you'll come with me, I will take you to the hospital. I can take the rest of your statements there," said an officer.

"Will Noona be okay?" Jongup asked.

"I won't know more until I take you to the hospital. I need the contact info of your company so I can call the president. He may want to press charges."

Youngjae looked at Yong Guk. "You need to call Shin Woo Hyung. He can't hear this from the news."

Yong Guk nodded and reached for his phone. To his dismay it was shattered. "Officer, can you get me that woman's phone before they take her to the hospital?" he asked.

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"Hyung!" Jeremy whispered to Shin Woo. They were in the middle of their radio interview so the other man shrugged him away. "Hyung! You need to look at the TV."

Looking up Shin Woo looked at the ticker rolling across the screen. But it was the woman on the screen that caught his attention. There was a wrecked van with the caption "South Korean rookie group in car accident." Cold dread flowed through him as he focused on the subtitles.

"Just moments ago we were given word that a South Korean rookie group was in a terrible car accident a little more than half an hour ago. Rookie group Warrior was heading back from their television debut when their van had a flat. The driver tried to pull over to fix it but a car going more 120 kilometers hit the struggling vehicle, forcing it into the guardrail. The van hit the rail, went on two wheels then flipped onto its hood. The members all escaped with minor injuries but we're told the manager was in critical condition when she was taken to the hospital. The company will seek to press charges against the other driver…"

Shin Woo's heart hit the floor just as his phone began to ring. Solbi's picture filled his screen and he scrabbled to get his headphones off and get away from the microphone so he could answer it.

"Solbi?" he asked immediately.

"Hyung?" He heard Yong Guk's voice and knew this wasn't good at all.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Note: My grandmother had wifi but it wasn't strong enough to post on a daily basis. So there will be two chapters posted at once probably.

Thanks to those who didn't kill me. No, I'm not killing Solbi. That's all you can know right now. She's not going to die. I'm not that cruel. Don't worry.

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Yong Guk sat with his head tossed back on the back of the chair in the waiting room. The emergency crew had taken Solbi back to surgery as soon as she had arrived. They had been checked out by the emergency room nurses and cleared to leave but with their friend in surgery there was no way they were going to leave.

Zelo jumped up and started pacing the floor just as the driver returned with President Ahn. They talked briefly before the president of their company went to handle the medical expenses of his group. The driver sat down beside them and fiddled with his phone. He was feeling guilty for the wreck when it wasn't his fault.

The OR light went off and they all came to attention. After a few minutes, the doctor on call came out pulling off his mask and gloves. He took a deep breath and put his hands on his hips. They couldn't figure out how he was feeling.

"Well, it's not as bad as I thought. A few pieces of glass cut into her face and I had to reset the break in her arm with pins. She had a concussion and slight swelling on the brain but that was fading as I was in surgery," he said.

"What about her eye?" Jongup asked. "She has some disease in her left eye. Did she go completely blind?"

"I don't think so. The glass cut the top of her eyebrow and right under eyelid on top of the cheek bone. They were deep enough that I had the suture them, and they may leave a scar. I won't know until she wakes up if it had any effect. Did you call her next of kin?"

"The only person we know is her cousin and he's out of the country at the moment," Daehyun answered. "Does she need family here?"

"It wouldn't hurt, but I don't think she'll wake up for a little bit. It will be a few minutes before we move her to her room. You may wait in there if you wish." The surgeon turned around and headed back to fill out paperwork.

"I talk to Shin Woo. He called Solbi's parents. They should be flying in from Busan shortly," President Ahn said. "He should be arriving at Incheon at the same time. They should be here in an hour."

"Sir, what if they try to take her home?" Zelo asked. "She can't fly at the moment and I know she won't want to leave us, especially Yong Guk hyung."

Youngjae pinched him just as the head of their company looked sharply at their leader. "What is he talking about?"

Yong Guk lifted his chin though he felt his knees shaking. "I've been seeing Solbi a few nights a week after practice. We've gone on a couple of dates in the last two weeks."

"You've been dating when you should have been getting ready for your debut? Does that make any sense to you?"

He didn't answer. He didn't have to defend his relationship. He didn't have the notion to get into a relationship when Solbi first arrived, but it developed that way. It had happened because he had become way too concerned with her use of electronics. After that, there was no point in denying it.

Ahn didn't say anything at his rookie's calmness. Finally he shook his head. "Make sure it stays quiet. We don't need your fans finding out you have a girlfriend so early in your relationship. It could cause the end of your career before it even begins."

Yong Guk nodded and they all sat back down to wait. After what seemed like an eternity, they were told they could go back to Solbi's room. She was already there and the nurse was doing her final check before silently leaving. Zelo was the first one beside the bed and he sat on it. He ran his fingers over the bandage on his friend's head, torment tearing across his face.

They sat in the room and listened to the monitors beep incessantly. It took an hour or so for the anesthesia to wear off. Daehyun was sitting on the bed holding Solbi's good hand when it started to twitch. He didn't think anything of it until she started to move and make pained noises.

By the time she opened her eyes they were standing around the bed. Yong Guk was rubbing the bandage area of her forehead when she blinked the sleep out of her eyes. He didn't know if she could see right away, but when she looked at everyone and smiled slowly, he knew what remained of her vision hadn't been compromised.

Solbi looked at Zelo and smiled. "Hey, kitten," she said. Her voice was barely above a whisper but it was clear.

Once again tears filled the maknae's eyes as his knees gave way and he sat on the bed. "Noona, are you okay? We thought you were…"

"I'm okay."

Yong Guk grabbed her attention. "President Ahn called your parents. They should be here shortly."

"No." There was heat in her drug induced voice.

"We didn't have a choice in the matter. He just told us he called them. There was no way we could stop him. Either way, they are coming and should be here soon."

"Hyung, we should let her sleep," Youngjae advised.

Solbi slipped into sleep again, and they divided up who was going to be there. Yong Guk, Zelo and Jongup were voted to stay while the others went home and went to sleep. They busied themselves by playing card games and on their tablets.

It was nearing five in the morning and time for the first shift change. The three were preparing to go home when the door flew open. An older gentleman and woman rushed in followed by Shin Woo. Yong Guk was sitting by the bed when the man pushed him out of the way. He looked to Shin Woo who shook his head.

"How did this happen?" he asked. "Shin Woo, why weren't you watching her like you promised?"

"Hyung has his own things he has to do. She was in good hands," Jongup said.

The man whirled on him. "Who are you?"

"Uncle, this is the group Solbi is in charge of. They've been with her since the accident," Shin Woo said in the group's defense. "They're just as responsible with her as I am. Yong Guk, this is Han Ji Sun and Lee Sol Ki, Solbi's parents. Uncle, this is Yong Guk, Zelo and Jongup."

"I don't care who they are. I want them out," his uncle demanded.

Yong Guk's temper flared. "Your name isn't on the guardian form. You can't kick me out."

Zelo patted his shoulder. "Come on, hyung. It isn't worth the fight."

"Why should I leave my girlfriend's room when I've been here for the last seven hours? I watched the emergency crews pull her out, we waited in the waiting room while she had surgery, and we've been here while she slept. I don't care who you are. I'm not leaving."

The two men stared at each other for the longest. Han Ji Sun's glare was potent, but Yong Guk hadn't beaten himself up for the last seven hours to let someone else do it. He knew he should have had Solbi sitting in the back seat with them. There had been enough room but she had insisted on sitting up front. He hadn't argued with her when she had said she would be fine. No one had known the van was going to flip but it didn't stop the guilt that flared up inside him.

Solbi heard people arguing in the haze of her drugged sleep. She recognized Yong Guk's voice, his and Zelo's. But she had never heard him that angry. She couldn't make out what he was saying, but the tone of his voice told her it wasn't anything good. As far as she knew, he got along with everyone in his group and rarely talked angrily to them.

Cracking her eyes open, she could barely focus but one figure stood out. It was her father. Turning her head slightly, she saw her mother sitting on the other side of her. Who had called them? She knew instantly what the entire argument was about. She couldn't sit up. The controls to the bed were on her right side and that arm was in a cast bent against her belly.

"Oppa."

She wasn't sure whose head turned the fastest: her mother's or Yong Guk's. Her mother reached for her hand but Solbi pulled it away and hit the button to raise the bed. Yong Guk didn't move from his spot, but she could see the worry lines in his face ease a bit.

"Noona!" Zelo breathed. He bypassed her mother and slid behind the head of the bed. "Did you sleep well?"

"I did. Did you sleep any?"

"Not a wink. Yong Guk hyung and Jongup hyung and I played cards until I got bored. Then I played on my tablet until they came in."

She reached up and rubbed his chin. "What is it?"

Zelo's face contorted as he tried to figure out the best way to talk to her. "Does he always talk so gruffly?"

She looked at her father. "Appa, did you take your attitude out on my kitten?"

Jongup and Shin Woo shared a laugh as Ji Sun's face took on a different look. They didn't know how to describe it, but it was priceless.

"Your kitten? Who the hell is your kitten?" Solbi pointed to Zelo then pierced him with a glare. "He's a grown man."

"He's nineteen! He's not yet grown. And you don't have any right to come in here and demand they leave when I didn't even call you. If anyone should leave, it's you. Now that Shin Woo is here, you may leave. Sorry my boss decided to call you and bring you all the way here when you have so much more to do."

Ji Sun sputtered as Sol Ki touched her daughter's shoulder. "Your father was very worried. He was the one that said we should come," her mother said.

"Oma, don't lie. I know you're the one who told him you were coming and that you booked the flight. I know he wants to take me back home. It's not happening. I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving my group and my cousin. Nothing you say will change my mind."

"Then we will cut off your spending," her father threatened.

She couldn't help the laugh that came out. "Last time I checked, Shin Woo was in charge of my spending, not that I spent much. When I moved here, you told me never to ask you for money because no one in their right mind would hire someone who was handicap. Looks like I'm doing well for myself."

Ji Sun scoffed. "You call being in an accident doing well? Were you driving?"

Yong Guk had let the conversation go the way Solbi had wanted. She had seemed to be doing well on her own, but that last comment had her glaring daggers at her father. He'd had enough.

"Sir, she wasn't driving the van, not that it would have been her fault. The other car hit us even though we had emergency lights on. Other than that, she has been doing well. She got us to the number one position in a night. We won as a rookie group. You can't not call that successful," he said.

"You don't know my daughter."

"I know her better than you do. I know exactly when she's used a computer or any other electronic way too long. I know when her eyes are bothering her. And I know exactly when she's wearing down enough that she needs to sleep. All those qualities make her a wonderful manager but she stresses herself out."

"Anyone can tell when that happens, boy. It's not that difficult."

Daehyun, who had just walked into the room with Himchan and Youngjae following him, piped up. "Obviously it is for you. Do you know how difficult it was to get her to tell us anything about being blind and losing her remaining sight? Do you know how much you put her down and made her not want to be with anyone because of it?"

"Yeobo!" Sol Ki exclaimed.

That was enough for Shin Woo because he tilted his head in complete confusion. "Aunt Sol Ki, don't act like you didn't know. Solbi told you time and again, but you turned a blind eye. Pardon the pun, but you made it seem like you didn't care. You spent all your time on Sol Ji and whatever she wanted to do, but it's been Solbi who's taken care of her expenses. She's sent more money home in the last six years than you ever spent on her. Guys, what I didn't tell you was when Solbi was dancing, I paid for her dance classes and studio time. My family took care of her like she was a second child."

The other guys looked at Solbi. It was yet another thing she had kept hidden from them because they didn't need to know. Yong Guk should have felt annoyed that she hadn't told him the whole story, but knowing her like he did, he understood why she hadn't. It wasn't that she didn't trust them, but she didn't want them criticizing her family much like they were doing now.

"Guys," he said, and his members turned to look at him, "go out in the waiting room for a bit. I have something I need to say and I don't want you to be held responsible if it backfires on me."

He waited until the five remaining guys turned and left the room. When the door closed, he rounded on the man who had pissed him off. He didn't get physical, but his words were sharp enough that they cut deeply.

"I'm not usually disrespectful to my elders, but this is a case where I don't care what you say. This woman has bent over backwards to make sure your family and our family are taken care of. We lost our rehearsal studio and she endured solicitation and sleepless nights to find us a space. We are still practicing in her living room. She pays for our food and any other thing we want without complaint. We eat at her house and sometimes sleep there. You don't know how lucky we are to have her.

"With that being said, if you ever try to come into our space and force her to leave, you will have a severe fight on your hands. It's only been two weeks, but we have become our own family. Daehyun and Zelo aren't from Seoul so we're the family they have here. If you try to break it up, we won't think twice about defending ourselves. The love we have for this woman is so much stronger than you realize."

Ji Sun crossed his arms. "Are you saying that will watch out for a crippled woman for the rest of your life? Doesn't that seem a little unfair to a healthy man? What if your children turn out to be just like her?"

"Then the group will raise them like they're their own. Just because someone is blind doesn't mean they are cripple. I've seen that woman dance from memory and on beat. She doesn't have to see what she's doing to do it. As for a healthy man, a healthy man will love the woman he knows is his no matter what happens. And I plan to do that. When she loses the rest of her sight, we will all be there to help out. Zelo is her kitten, Jongup her street dancer, Daehyun her cook, Youngjae her bird, and Himchan her barista."

"What does that make you?" Shin Woo asked.

Yong Guk looked at him with his head raised high. "Hopefully it makes me the luckiest guy in the world to be called her lover." He looked back at the parents. "Hyung, you can go back to Japan. Everything is fine here."

The older guy looked at his cousin. "Solbi?"

She looked up at him. "I'm fine, but make sure the nurse's station knows that I don't want them here anymore. President Ahn, yourself and the guys of Warrior are the only ones allowed to come in here."

"What about Tae Kyung and Jeremy?"

"That's a given but they're still in Japan. I should be released by then." She looked at her parents. "Please leave. I don't want to have you escorted out like common criminals."

Shin Woo nodded and looked to his aunt and uncle. Sol Ki smiled and patted her daughter's arm while Ji Sun huffed and pushed roughly against Yong Guk to get out. The younger man paid no mind as he resumed his spot at the head of the bed.

When he opened the door, the five guys in the hallway rushed past him. The last thing he saw was the six of them gathered around the hospital bed yapping away.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: Little to no internet connection doesn't make me very happy, especially when I have to share with everyone else.

But that wasn't the worst part of this holiday experience. My cousin is having a hard time and spent most of the time in bed. I ignored it for the most part. But last night he woke me up to come into the living then preceded to ignore me. It pissed me off so I went back to bed. I wouldn't have minded if he had talked to me after waking me up but he decided he wanted to talk to my sister instead. I was so mad. I understand you're having a hard time but don't be an ass about it. Then we got stuck in the mountains for several hours. It took us two days to get home. I'm tired.

Rant over. I just wanted to get that out. Talking about it to my family is like talking to a brick wall or listening to a broken record.

(*(*(*(*(*(*(

"Yong Guk, if you don't stop I'm going to beat you with this cast."

Yong Guk looked at Solbi in the backseat of the taxi. She wasn't kidding with him. She had that look on her face that told him he was about to die if he didn't figure out what was going with him.

She had been released from the hospital two days after surgery. The influx of people to her room had increased when the rest of A.N. Jell had returned from Japan. She had been able to move around more but the doctors didn't want her to do too much because of her concussion. She had also been told not to dance for a few days after she was released. Not that she would because a lot of the dances required use of her hands. She was kind of down one at the moment.

When she had finally been released, she had thought Zelo was going to have a heart attack. The kid made a loud noise and nearly fell as he ran from the room. Jongup followed closely behind him. One of them realized they didn't know the pass code because Jongup returned and asked for it.

Shin Woo had popped up with Tae Kyung and Jeremy that morning. Tae Kyung had settled the hospital bill as Jeremy flitted about like a high hummingbird. He didn't sit still until Solbi threw her pillow at him. Then he plopped his blond headed self into a chair and waited until the doctor came to give the all clear.

The older men went back to Solbi's house as Yong Guk listened to doctor's instructions before Solbi was discharged. She wasn't supposed to use a computer or tablet until her concussion was healed. Any physical labor was out of the question until she came back in three weeks for a follow up on her arm. She was being told that she couldn't do half the stuff she did on a daily basis. The long on her face was priceless as she listened to the doctor, and she wasn't happy.

Finally she was allowed to go home. Policy stated that a patient could only leave the hospital by wheelchair. She didn't like that either. Yong Guk had pushed her through the main doors to a car waiting outside. Unfortunately, there were photographers waiting outside. They got a few good pictures of them but she wasn't sure if they knew her name or not.

That had been twenty minutes ago. Finally they were sitting outside her place. The photographers had followed them, and Yong Guk was having a fight. That had inspired her words.

Yong Guk looked at her for a long moment. "If you do that, you'll have to go back to the hospital."

"It's worth it for you to shut up and stop worrying. I want to go inside. I'm hungry and hospital food tastes like overcooked rice. I want to go eat because I know Daehyun has cooked," she said.

"You're right handed. How are you going to eat?"

She kicked open the door then looked back at him. "I'll figure it out. Now I'm going in. You can sit here and stew for all I care. But the longer you sit here, the more you have to pay because the meter is still running."

Yong Guk frowned then looked ahead. She was correct. By the time he pulled money out, she was already in her building. He gave the driver the money and bailed out as fast as he could. She was already halfway up the stairs to the third floor by the time he caught up. She wasn't playing with him. She was ready to go.

There was so much noise when they walked into the house. Too many people were there. All of Warrior, A.N. Jell, and even President Ahn were bunched into the house. It may have been nosy but it smelled great.

Solbi skirted everyone and went directly into the bathroom. A few moments later they heard the shower fire up. Shin Woo laughed but didn't leave the table. He obviously thought she was okay enough to shower alone. No one else seemed to agree with him but he had priority over everyone. He was the blood relative.

Shin Woo got up when they heard Solbi start cursing for no reason. Everyone couldn't help but laugh at the first thing she said in her return home. Leave it to her fire cracker personality to do so. The bathroom door opened and steam rolled out. Shin Woo came down the hallway as Solbi hopped two steps to her bedroom.

When she returned she sighed and plopped down beside Jongup. He slid a drink to her, making sure to tell her where it was on the table. She leaned into him in thanks then guzzled half of it down.

"I'll tell you what, hospital food is nasty," she said.

"Well, maybe you will like bibimbap and a soup instead of nasty hospital food," Daehyun replied as he set a huge pot in front of her. He gave her a shocked look when her stomach grumbled. "Someone's hungry."

"Shut up," she said as she reached for the ladle.

"Do you want me to do it?" Zelo asked. She nodded her head at him and he grabbed the serving spoon, dishing a huge helping in her bowl. He scratched his head in embarrassment. "Sorry."

"Don't be. I'm starving."

Everyone else got their helpings and settled into quiet conversation that was so against every fiber of their beings. Solbi relied heavily on Jongup and Shin Woo so she knew where everything was. She didn't argue with them or say anything snarky. It was a calm dinner.

Afterwards, Jongup and Zelo started to clean up. Since they had started coming every day, the maknaes had taken to kitchen duty since it was the same thing they had to do at their dorm. Might as well take care of it while they were there as well.

"I'm curious," Jeremy said as Solbi settled on the couch. She looked at him. "When did this happen?" He pointed between Yong Guk and Solbi. "And did you really tell Ji Sun and Sol Ki that you weren't backing down no matter what they thought?"

Yong Guk looked down at Solbi. "They ticked me off."

"They ticked us all off," Daehyun said.

"They do that. We just learned to roll with it," Shin Woo advised. "Have you told her what's going on at the company?"

Solbi finally shifted, actually looking like she was part of the conversation. "What's going on? What did you do?"

Himchan looked at Tae Kyung. "Why does she always think we did something bad?"

"It's just how her brain works," the oldest among them said. "You should tell her before she starts thinking things are worse than they really are."

"They placed first at last night's show," Shin Woo supplied when it looked like no one was going to answer.

Solbi looked at the four guys in her vision. She knew the other two were smiling from ear to ear just as they were. They had worked so hard to get to that point. They had been cast from their rehearsal studio ten days shy of their debut and had to start practicing in an apartment. Things could have gone horribly wrong, but while she had been in the hospital, they had gone out and had won first place.

The doorbell rang suddenly. Youngjae pushed the chairs up to the table and went to answer it. Instantly an angry voice filled the small confines of the entrance hallway. Everyone looked at each other because they knew what was going on. Shin Woo jumped up and tried to block his uncle from entering under bad terms. It wasn't a fight he was going to win even when Yong Guk hopped up to help.

They wrestled with the man for a long while before he settled into a tirade of words that wouldn't be appropriate to repeat even here.

"Appa," Solbi said. He turned to look at her even though he was being blocked by Shin Woo and Yong Guk. "Why are you here?"

Sol Ki brushed past her nephew and took up the seat he had vacated. She didn't seem to realize she was getting dirty stares from the men gathered. She ran her fingers across the bandage on her daughter's face.

"You should know I would come when you were discharged. You need your mother," she said.

"What child deserves a mother who doesn't protect her?" Tae Kyung asked. "She didn't deserve a weak willed lot her but that's what she got. She didn't deserve a liability but that's what happened. But you know what she does choose? She chose this group right here as her family. You can't take that."

The older woman looked up, hatred filling her eyes. "You have always poisoned her mind when it came to us."

"No, Oma," Solbi said as she slid back from her mother. She half sat in her seat and half in Jongup's lap. The latter didn't seem to mind as he placed a hand on her hip to steady her. "You did that long ago when you refused to see things in a different light. You let him convince you that any disabilities your children had were because of you. He never once told you that his mother was blind in one eye and that it was hereditary. Yet you blindly followed everything he said without giving it an ounce of thought. I will go blind one day, and I'm certain this car accident has sped up that process, but I'm not afraid of it anymore."

She looked around the room. "In the last two weeks, these guys have taught me one thing. Family is what you make and who you rely on. It's going to take some time for me to be able to call you family again, but that's okay. Because this family in front of me is what will take care of me until that time comes. And when it does, I hope you extend your hand to me like you used to do when I was a child."

Her father scoffed. "You seem to think any man would want a woman who can't bear children. I'm certain you haven't told him that have you?"

"Actually, she has," Yong Guk said. Ji Sun looked sharply at him, all traces of gloating gone from his features. "She told me when I first announced that I would marry her. And I told her the same thing I'm about to tell you; I don't care. We can always adopt. There are plenty of kids who don't have parents to call their own. That's not an issue."

"So I think the reason you're here has finally been outed," Tae Kyung scolded as he rounded the table. "Now I think you should leave."

"Last time I checked this was my daughter's house," her father tried to argue.

"Actually it's under my name. I just let Solbi live here. I pay all the bills," Shin Woo said. "So I'm within every right to send you away, and I give full authority to Tae Kyung to do so."

The married couple looked around. The nine men in the house were stone faced as they stared them down. They looked at their daughter once again. Jongup was stroking her hair as she leaned against him. Though they weren't dating, they were unusually close. Jongup's gaze was even more lethal than Shin Woo's and Yong Guk's if that was even possible.

Slowly, they turned around and left the house. Solbi hugged Jongup close, the latter returning it just as fiercely.

"No matter what they say, you're always the first person each of us thinks of in the morning," he said.

Zelo laughed. "Yeah, we wonder what fresh hell you're going to put us through, Noona." He looked at Yong Guk then. "Hyung, did you really know about her inability to have kids?"

Yong Guk shook his head. "No. I just made it up because I wanted to tick the man off. But what I said just now still stands."

Everyone laughed and resumed their dinner. Afterwards, the maknae cleanup crew set about putting everything back in order while the hyung line took turns showering. Shin Woo, Tae Kyung, and Solbi sat down to work on a new schedule as Jeremy helped Zelo and Jongup clean the kitchen. By the time everyone and everything was clean, it was nearly midnight.

Yong Guk watched Solbi from the doorway as she wandered around her room cleaning up the clothes that had accumulated over the last few days. He hadn't thought about anything while she had been in the hospital. Cleaning had been the last thing on his mind.

She finished whatever it is she was doing and plopped face first on the bed. Laughing, he pulled the door closed behind him and padded over. She couldn't see him from the angle she was at but he knew she knew he was there. He lay down beside her, laughing when she refused to get under the covers until he nudged her to do so. Then he gathered her to him and held her tightly.

"Are you okay?" he asked. She hummed in response as she buried her face in his neck. "Your father didn't upset you?"

"It's hard to get upset when you don't listen to what he says anymore," she answered. "I just want to sleep. Can we not worry about this anymore? I made my decision."

Smiling in the darkness, Yong Guk knew the exact instant she fell asleep. Her breathing evened out and her hand that gripped his shoulder relaxed. She didn't move for the longest. He pressed his nose into her hair as his eyes started to feel heavy.

"Saranghae," he whispered.

He couldn't be sure because he was starting to fall under the Sand Man's spell but he thought he heard her whisper I love you in return.

THE END


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